


Instead Of You

by Crescental



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: F/M, Gajeel is a zombie, Gray is a werewolf, Hurt/Comfort, Nalu - Freeform, Natsu is a vampire, light gore, slight GaLe and GrUvia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-21
Updated: 2015-01-11
Packaged: 2018-02-13 11:56:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 35,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2149860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crescental/pseuds/Crescental
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Honestly, I'm scared. Natsu became a vampire, Gajeel a zombie, and Gray a werewolf. The Master says that if we don't find a cure for them soon, they'll forever lose themselves to the diseases. I can't lose him, and I can't stand to see him in pain. I wish it was me that got infected instead of him. What should I do Mama?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I Wish It Lasted Longer

The blonde watched his chest move up and down with his uneven breathing.

His usual fiery, silky, salmon colored hair was bristly. Instead of it being wild and energetic like his personality, it was flat and calm. It looked like hair that belonged to a corpse.

But that was not the only thing that made him look… dead. His skin, usually sporting a fair tan, was snow white. Dark circles sat underneath his closed eyes, making it look like he hadn't slept for ages.

Why did this have to happen? She thought, fighting back the tears that threatened to overflow. For if she did… she didn't know if she would be able to stop.

Lucy hated seeing the dragon slayer like this. And she hated seeing her two other guild mates unconscious and ill like Natsu. Though, they didn't seem to be in as bad a condition as Natsu.

That was probably because the fire dragon slayer meant the most to her, and she couldn't imagine life without him. But Juvia and Levy would probably think it was more saddening to them to not know what was happening to Gray and Gajeel.

Lucy turned around on her wooden stool to look behind her and see how the other two victims were doing.

There, on a white bed, laid the iron dragon slayer. His skin had a greenish-black hue, like it was rotting, and it was wrinkled, especially around the iron piercings on his face. That was the only thing that she saw that was different about Gajeel… ever since the incident.

When the celestial mage looked up at Levy's sad face, Lucy saw she was just as sad about Gajeel as she was about Natsu. But that was to be expected.

The blonde moved back to her previous position, and gave another worried look to Natsu before glancing up to the other bed in front of her.

There, laid a half-naked Gray, but he didn't seem any different. Yet, the same thing that happened to Natsu and Gajeel happened to him.

Juvia was sobbing and apologizing to her Gray-sama and saying she wished it was her on the infirmary bed instead of him.

Lucy looked back down at Natsu, and she knew she couldn't keep her dam up to block the tears any more. She felt the same things that the water mage was vocalizing, but for different reasons.

After all, it was her fault this happened to specifically these three… Right?

...Wasn't it?  
     
***

Natsu's angry yells echoed across the guild hall and had every person inside it eavesdrop on the conversation of Team Natsu, Gajeel, Levy, and Juvia.

It was normal for the fire dragon slayer to shout at Gray, but the dispute was about a… peculiar subject, for those two any way.

Lucy, sitting between Levy and oddly, Juvia, shrunk back in her seat, for she did not like the subject of their quarrel, especially since Natsu was the target of the weird fight.

She looked across the table to see Erza enjoying her strawberry cake, ignoring everything around her. The blonde slumped in her wooden chair. Apparently she couldn't count on Erza…

Ugh! She had no way out of this!

She was so distressed, she looked over at Happy. Maybe he could do something. But of course, like Erza, he was eating his fish without a care in the world. She sighed.

Maybe I could go home? Lucy mentally wondered.

"If a girl was desperate enough to date a loser like you, you wouldn't even know if she were going to kiss you! Even if she right out said she would!"

And there was yet another one of the insults Gray had thrown at Natsu that fine afternoon, and it made Lucy slump further into her chair. The conversation was going in the exact direction she didn't want it to go.

Crud, too late to leave now. She thought miserably. Lucy couldn't leave now because Gray was pressuring Natsu with the love subject, and of course, everyone thought her and the fire mage were an item.

She ignored the little voice in her head that told her she wished it was true.

So, if she left at that moment, people were going to know she was leaving because she found their fight… embarrassing.

With that reasoning, and the fact that Erza was oblivious to her surroundings, she knew she was going to have to deal with this unusual argument.

"I would too ice prick!"

"Does he even know what a date is?" Gajeel joined in, both him and Gray ignored Natsu's retort. They both chuckled at the question, and the fire dragon slayer's obvious anger.

"I bet he doesn't know what se-"

"Gray-sama!" The ice wizard cut off and looked over to the water mage, who was looking extremely flustered. "Don't talk about such a delicate subject!"

Gray didn't have a chance to respond as Natsu instead spoke next.

"I know what all those things are!" He crossed his arms and was suddenly very fascinated in the wooden table in front of him. Gray and Gajeel were smirking triumphantly.

Lucy felt her eyes widen. It was weird to see Natsu step down from a fight, and it was weird he wasn't just calling Gray many names like usual. The only conclusion the blonde had was that Natsu didn't like the topic and was trying to get away from it.

"I don't see how you're much different," Natsu said with his own smirk, bringing his green eyes from the table up to make eye contact with Gray and Gajeel who were losing their victorious grins. "You can't even tell that Juvia over here pours her heart out to you every day."

Well, Lucy was incorrect on Natsu stepping out of the fight, but she was correct about him wanting to get out of being the target of the insults and claims. It was clear he was purposefully getting everyone's attention off of him and moving it to his current enemies. Strange, Lucy thought, I wonder why?

"And Gajeel," he went on with a growing smile, "It's obvious you like Levy and she likes you so stop being a wimp and kiss her already."

All separate conversations ceased. The whole guild was silent, and they were all thinking the same thing.

Natsu- the dense boy oblivious to the opposite gender - noticed attraction between two people, and he scolded them for not acting on it.

No one saw that one coming.

"Lu?" The said blonde looked over to her madly blushing best friend. "Am I that obvious?'

Oh Levy, I hope you know you just admitted you liked Gajeel, Lucy thought with a mental laugh.

She was about to reply to her embarrassed friend, but the iron dragon slayer's next words froze her.

"What about you Salamander? I don't see you making out with bunny girl!"

This was exactly why Lucy had been at unease throughout the boy's bickering, and why she had wanted either Erza to interfere like usual or go home.

She was too busy freaking out over what Gajeel said to tell him not to call her bunny girl.

"What the hell are you talking about iron face?"

The guild members listening in on the group's conversation visibly relaxed. Natsu, apparently, was just as dense as they thought, but only with his own matters.

Lucy felt her heart twist. It was yet another reason why she had wanted them to not fight about this topic. She didn't want Natsu and her to be brought into it because she didn't want to find out if Natsu didn't like her like she liked him.

After the Grand Magic Games, she realized and admitted to herself that she liked the fire dragon slayer. When they bought the old guild hall back, she tried to find signs of him liking her in return. They were finally able to go on normal, well-paying jobs again, so she figured that she could see differences from before the seven year gap and now.

She didn't find any.

After a little while, she gave up. And not wanting to hurt herself with the small hope Natsu would like her, she ignored her feelings for him. But maybe she would finally know.

"Either you're just an idiot like I thought you were, or you're pretending you don't know what I'm talking about to hide the fact you're a wimp." Gajeel's voice snapped Lucy out of her thought.

"I ain't a wimp!" Natsu exploded in rage, jumping on top of the bar table and throwing a fire covered fist into Gajeel's face. The iron dragon slayer flew across the room and crashed into a faraway table.

Unfortunately, this caught the scarlet-haired woman's attention.

A demonic aura surrounded her. Gajeel, despite trying to look tough, stopped advancing towards Natsu who quickly jumped off the table and rid his hand of the flame.

A few moments passed. Erza's threatening aura died down before she said she was going to finish her cake, and that she didn't want to see any more fighting.

Once she was absorbed in her cake again Natsu, with a smug smirk, said, "If I'm acting, then so are you."

Everyone stared at Natsu in shock because of they couldn't figure out if that was a confession to liking Lucy, or if he said that to once again put Gajeel in the spotlight. If it was because of the second reason, it worked.

Everyone's eyes turned to Gajeel, and he merely copied Natsu's earlier statement.

"I ain't a wimp!" Instead of throwing a punch like the fire dragon slayer had, he yanked an unsuspecting Levy out of her seat with the back of her shirt and gave her a hug...If you were to call it that. His bulky arm only clamped around her shoulders. Not even a second passed before he let go.

The only sound was Mirajane's squeal of joy at the nearby bar, and Jet and Droy cries and pouts.

Levy seemed slightly upset that the hug was so short-lived, yet an atmosphere of bliss surrounded her as she knew that for Gajeel to just do that meant a lot.

Lucy didn't have time to feel happy for her blue-haired friend, for she knew what was coming. Natsu would be Natsu. She knew for a fact he would see it as a challenge, and he would do anything to best it.

Even though she was moving as fast as she could to get to the guild doors, she could only stand up from her seat before Natsu put his hands on her hips.

She wanted to move, but she couldn't bring herself to.

Lucy thought that he would do what Gajeel did and give her a small hug, but he didn't do anything else. He was a frozen statue. She peeked over her shoulder to see Natsu's face slightly red. Was he blushing?

This time, she didn't ignore the little voice in her head that told her he looked cute when he blushed.

She felt warmth envelope her body, and she knew it was joy. What he was doing wasn't a lot, but it was just enough proof that Natsu possibly liked her.

A blush appeared on her face.

Natsu had been looking at the ground throughout the whole ordeal, but when he felt Lucy shift, he had looked up to find her big doe eyes looking back up at him. A cherry-red blush brightened her cheeks. He felt his own face get a little hotter.

The pyromancer looked over to his left to see Gajeel out of his supposed embrace, snickering. He seemed to have forgotten that his hug with Levy had been just as awkward.

The reminder of why Natsu was doing this in the first place and the iron dragon slayer's laughter gave him the determination he needed. He would not lose to him!

With that, he leaned down toward the blonde girl's face. Her eyes only had enough time to widen before his lips pecked her cheek.

In a flash, he was five steps away from Lucy. His face was facing the ceiling to hide the remainder of his blush.

"There," he muttered, arms crossed.

A thump echoed through building as did Elfman's shouts at Mira to wake up.

Silence and tension was palpable and thick in the air.

Lucy didn't like it. It was the exact opposite of her adoptive home. It was the opposite of Natsu, yet he was the source of it.

Noticing this, Lucy turned around to face the doors that would open up to the town of Magnolia. She took three steps toward them before stopping and crossing her arms. Her hair collapsed around her face.

She hadn't known at the time, but walking to that spot had been a big mistake. It was why Gray, Gajeel, and Natsu specifically got attacked.

Footsteps sounded behind her, and they led the person they belonged to in front of Lucy. She glanced up to see Levy, face still adorned with a blush, looking at her with worry.

Lucy looked up at her fully, "I'm fine Levy, don't worry." She was surprised when her voice shook.

"Luce?"

Both Lucy and Levy looked up the pink haired boy, who was awkwardly rubbing his neck.

"If I did something, I'm sorry. So, uh, don't cry or anything."

The blonde blinked once, then twice.

"Eh?" She asked dumbly.

"Well, uh, it sounded like you were going to cry." Ah, so he thought the shakiness in her voice was a sign of crying. Truthfully, she didn't know why her voice had been unsteady. The only feeling she was able to recognize within herself was confusion, nothing else.

Had that been a confession from Natsu? Or did he do that merely because he was challenged by Gajeel to do so?

Those questions were the only reason she had stomped off. She realized now, that it was childish of her, and she had caused needless concern.

"Oh! No, no, no! Not at all! And you didn't do anything, I was just-ah-being stupid!"

Natsu visibly relaxed, "Ah, okay. Well that's good." Everyone understood the hidden message though. He had secretly said, I hate seeing you cry.

After a few moments of quiet, Lucy looked over to the table she had been sitting at to see Gray glaring at the wood. The fact that the ice mage had been quiet for such a long time and was now staring at a piece of furniture was a curious thing, and it made the celestial spirit mage wonder what was on his mind.

As if Gajeel was also, I dare say, concerned over the stripper, the man covered in piercings beckoned him over to him.

Gray slowly stood up and walked over to iron dragon slayer before walking with Gajeel over to their location.

"Well Salamander, guess you're not a total wimp."

"Hey I did it, didn't I!? And I did more than you!"

Lucy wisely chose to ignore them and, again, looked over at Gray and saw that when the dragon slayers started talking about that, he had resumed his gloomy state. Lucy grinned. So that was what it was about.

She glumly realized that Mirajane had infected her with the desire to match up everybody and interfere with their love lives.

She was about to tease him and pressure him into hugging Juvia, but oddly, the water mage chose that moment to walk over. Lucy found it slightly strange she was smiling since she had been, she suddenly noticed, staring at Gray.

Lucy had been looking at Gray with a sly smile, yet Juvia seemed completely calm and not enraged.

"Juvia wishes to apologize to Lucy."

The blue haired girl never failed to surprise her. "What for?"

She regretted asking once the sweet smile on the girl's face turned into a mischievous one.

"Juvia realizes Lucy is not a love rival of Gray-sama, for she likes Natsu."

Lucy didn't want to deny it because it was the truth, but the salmon haired boy was standing right behind her. So she decided the best option was to tell Juvia she didn't like him, but she opened her mouth to form the words and nothing came out.

Instead of responding, she turned around and was thankful to see that Natsu was still arguing with Gajeel.

She couldn't help but smile.

But that small smile was so brief. As she looked back, she realized how she wished it had lasted longer.

The happening, at the time, had been tortuous, and she had wanted it to go away as soon as possible.

If she could have went back to that event in time, she would have appreciated that occasion more. She would have enjoyed Natsu displaying his affection to her more. As she looked back at it, she realized that that moment of embarrassment, fun, arguing, and goofy love… would have been much better than what happened next.

The ceiling above the group of six broke down. Instinctively, Natsu pushed Lucy onto the ground and covered her with his body to shelter her from the falling wood. Gajeel did the same with Levy, and Gray did so with Juvia.

Once the ceiling stopped crumbling down, everyone in the guild looked over to the person floating over the debris.

It was clearly a woman, with how the sleek black robe showed off her lean figure. The long, droopy sleeves and hood of the clothing hid her hands and face from view. Her feet were concealed as well.

Lucy thought she looked like a ghost that went out to scare people on Halloween for pure fun.

A dark cackle erupted from the woman, and everyone grew more tense.

The celestial mage swore that the lady said, "This was going to be fun" when her mad laughter ceased.

Master Makarov was the first to move. He walked four steps before stopping.

"Ah, Makie!" The mysterious lady said in a sing-song voice.

Makarov raised an eyebrow at her, but he was just as apprehensive, if not more.

"Who are you?"

Everyone cringed as she lifted her face to only show her cracked lips moving in the manner of a pout before turning into a crazed smile.

"Surely you recognize me Makie? People call me Plague for some odd reason."

Makarov's eyes widened considerably, and the guild members were surprised to see him stiffen.

The woman known as Plague seemed to notice that as she then laughed.

"Ah, so you do know me. That is good. Master Jose hired me to come here, so surely you know what is to come…"

Her stark white hand was finally shown as it went to her mouth to cover it and muffle her laughter.

No one knew if the Master's eyes could widen further.

In an instance, he grew to the size of a giant.

"Leave now!" His voice vibrated the walls of the guild.

"Sorry, but when I get payed to do something. I always finish it though I'm sure you already know."

Makarov threw his large fist downward to crush her, but it went through her as if she really were a ghost. He recalled his stretched arm back to him to prepare for another attack.

But he couldn't move fast enough, no one could.

He could only take a step forward, reach a hand out, and shout no as the crazy woman moved.

In the blink of an eye, the woman faced the six people still by the guild doors and spread her arms out in an arc. A substance formed between her two hands that resembled green slime. A dangerous magic aura emitted from it.

Then the mysterious green energy rocketed forward. It split up into three individual circles and changed colors. The one heading towards Gray was greyish-white, the circle heading towards Natsu was a blood-red, and the the one moving towards Gajeel retained its grotesque green but gained a black hue.

The boys thought it was an attack meant to do harm, so they stood protectively in front of the girls.

Master Makarov stretched his hand out towards the spheres and shouted, "Get out of the way!" But it was too late.

The three didn't expect the weird circles to turn into lightning and go into their bodies.

With a pain filled scream, they curled in on themselves. They yelled and groaned in agony as they clutched their stomachs.

A look of pure fear decorated Makarov's face. Determination and anger then replaced it, and he slammed his already stretched arm into Plague.

It merely went through her body again.

"Enjoy yourselves now," she said nonchalantly before flying through the hole she had made earlier.

The panicked cries of Lucy, Levy, and Juvia echoed through the fearful guild hall.

***

The boys had fallen to unconsciousness moments after being hit by the weird magic, and Makarov had yelled at everyone to get them to the infirmary immediately.

The Master, once they were put on the beds, examined them. He told everyone that they would have to wait for them to wake up before they could do anything. Wendy offered to heal them, but Makarov told her it probably wouldn't work. Wendy, trusting the Master's judgement, decided to try and heal them when they woke up.

During the hours of waiting for them to wake up, a lot of people lingered a bit before leaving. Erza, Wendy, Carla, Pantherlily, and Happy were the last to leave besides the solid script, celestial, and water mages. Though, Happy had left because the scary redhead and the iron dragon slayer's cat had forced him as he couldn't stop crying over Natsu. Erza and Pantherlily tried to convince Lucy, Juvia, and Levy to come with them to preoccupy them too. Erza even offered to stay and watch the unconscious boys. But the girls had been more stubborn then the blue cat and were the only ones to stay by their sides the whole time.

Throughout the anxious hours, Levy and Lucy had noticed how Natsu and Gajeel were… changing. Gray looked the same, but they were just as worried about him as they were about the dragon slayers.

Lucy felt that if she hadn't stood up and moved to that spot in front of the guild doors, the woman known as Plague wouldn't of hit them specifically.

She knew she was being silly and selfish.

There was no real way to determine who she would've hit. And if they hadn't of stood there, someone would else would have been hit. She felt horrible that the thought of someone other than Natsu being hit made her a little happier.

After recalling the events of that day, she finally felt her dam break down. She had been keeping it up for five hours, but it was five hours too long.

She sobbed into her hands. Lucy wasn't even disgusted when snot combined with her tears in one big mess within her palms.

She hadn't been crying for very long before a voice stopped her tears completely.

"Lu-chan?" She heard Levy's concerned voice, but it hadn't been the voice that stopped her tears. The blue haired women were too far away to hear it.

Lucy, strangely, ignored Levy, and instead crouched down next to Natsu. Doing so let the blonde's best friend see Natsu clutch at the comforter of the bed, and his mouth move to utter weak whispers. Levy called Juvia, who saw that too, and they both walked over.

Being that close to the fire dragon slayer let them hear what he had been saying.

"Don't cry Lucy."

Despite the situation, Levy couldn't help but say aw and tease the celestial mage.

Lucy grinned and stroked his currently pale face after carelessly wiping her hand on her shirt. She was surprised to find that she didn't need to cry anymore.

"Oh, Natsu." She mumbled with a weak smile.

The fire mage leaned into her hand before he finally opened his eyes.


	2. How Dare I

Utter joy enveloped her body as his dark green eyes were finally shown.

Butterflies fluttered in her stomach as he didn't retract from her hand that cupped his unusually pale cheek.

At that moment, it didn't matter that he looked the worst for wear, and that he had a fuzzy future.

They just stared at eachother before Natsu blinked a couple times, confusion written on his face. Did he not remember what had happened?

He slowly sat up and was clearly in pain with how his face contorted in agony and how he clutched his stomach as if his life depended on it.

"Natsu?" Lucy asked with a worried tone, timidly placing a hand on his shoulder as if he were a bomb about to go off.

This didn't go unnoticed by both the pink haired boy and the blonde. The girl didn't know why she had been hesitant, but she still felt ashamed especially since she still felt that Gray, Natsu, and Gajeel getting attacked had been her fault.

But the fire dragon slayer was just as guilty as he flinched from the contact. He groaned and turned his face away from Lucy, moving his callused hands from his stomach to his head.

The blonde was upset that he had cringed from her contact, but she guessed she deserved it from hesitating to touch him.

Lucy, moving her hand off of his shoulder, felt useless knowing that she couldn't really do anything to help his discomfort since she didn't know what was wrong with him. So she was about to do the only thing she could think of: get help. She stood up from her kneeling position beside the bed and took two steps forward before a hand clasped her wrist.

Startled, she looked down at her limb and then trailed her eyes up to the owner of the hand: the one and only Natsu Dragneel.

His head was still pointed downward to hide his face from her, so she couldn't really see what he was feeling at the moment besides his obvious pain.

Through a strangled gasp, he whispered, "Don't... Don't go." If the room had not been completely quiet, she think she wouldn't have heard him. As much as she loved the fact that Natsu had grabbed her hand to stop her from leaving, she wished he hadn't of done that. She had noticed that when Natsu had gripped her hand, he had started to breathe even heavier breaths, like he had just ran a marathon. She had noticed how his head had barely tilted upward, and Lucy knew he was staring at her wrist. It scared her, for it was strange and odd for him to that.

She grew even more fearful when his face started to inch towards her limb. Lucy saw him open his mouth. Long, pointy teeth poked out of it and grabbed her attention. The two fangs inched closer and closer to the artery in her wrist.

Natsu suddenly halted and drew his head back to previous distance. She mentally laughed at herself. Why had she been scared? She could trust Natsu, and she did trust Natsu. She always would.

Pretending like none of that had happened, Lucy eyes, as they looked down at the man know as Salamander, were tainted with the sadness she felt knowing that he was in such agony. She gave a depressed sigh before bringing her chocolate brown eyes up to Levy, who was looking between the two with worry. She knew Levy had seen that, and she wished she hadn't.

"Can you get the master?"

The blue haired girl gave a curt nod, looked at Gajeel one last time, and then walked out of the room through the infirmary doors.

A few seconds of tense silence passed, and Lucy felt her heart squeeze when the warmth of Natsu's hand left her wrist. She ignored the small part of her that was relieved because the threat had disappeared. Lucy mentally slapped herself, how dare she think about Natsu like that! Natsu had done so much for her, yet here she was backstabbing him and being afraid of him. What he was about to do didn't mean anything! And he would never hurt her! The blonde pushed that to the back of her mind after giving herself a mental slap. She turned her gaze back over to him to see he was now clutching the white sheets. She tried to comfort herself with the knowledge that he wasn't groaning in pain, and he wasn't breathing as heavily.

The celestial mage looked up and saw Juvia looking longingly and worriedly at the ice make mage. At least she didn't have to worry about Juvia seeing what had happened between her and Natsu.

"He's going to be fine. They're all going to be fine." Lucy found herself saying to the water mage. She knew it wasn't just for the dark-blue haired girl. It was for herself too, and maybe even Natsu.

Juvia looked at the blonde and gave her smile that thanked her for her comforting words. She smiled back, but she could help but feel it was shallow.

Lucy glanced down at Natsu again to see him returning the gaze.

She was surprised to see him grinning at her.

Then the doors opened. The master was telling everyone other guild member, who were all trying to get into the room, to get back.

Makarov looked over his shoulder at Natsu and saw him flinch with each loud noise the people outside the room made.

With a distressed look, he turned back to the crammed members.

"Everyone stay out! Only Levy can come in!" He said with a voice loud enough to get over everyone's yelling. It didn't leave any argument.

As the Master approached Natsu's bed, Levy stumbled through the wooden doors, almost falling on her face.

The Master hopped onto the bed supporting the dragon slayer. He moved a hand on top of Natsu's knee and gave a sad sigh as his somewhat adopted child had cringed from his touch.

"How are you feeling my boy?"

He felt his heart twist in rage and sorrow as Natsu answered between choked breaths.

"I'm fine."

Makarov sighed again. Jose would pay dearly for doing this to his children. "Remember not to lie to me."

Natsu finally looked up, and Lucy tried not to cry out in despair from the pure agony that he was visibly trying to hide.

"Sorry Gramps," he said, moving his gaze to the wooden floor.

Makarov's eyes widened when he noticed Natsu's teeth...

"Gray-sama!" Juvia said loudly, her voice was filled with relief.

Everyone turned their eyes to the ice wizard who seemed perfectly fine. Until he suddenly gasped in pain, and with an unnatural speed, yanked his necklace off of his neck.

Makarov's eyes widened further when he saw the scorch marks on the ice mage's skin from where the necklace had been.

He jumped off of the fire dragon slayer's bed to then hop onto Gray's bed.

"W-What?" The black haired teen asked no one in particular, looking at his hands that now had burn marks like his chest. He noticed the other presences in the room besides the water mage and master of Fairy Tail. He gave a quick glance to his right to see his pink haired friend-enemy. Gray sprung off of his bed and pointed an accusing finger at the pyro.

"You did this didn't you!?"

"I… I didn't do shit, stripper." The ice mage eye's enlarged in shock as he saw just how horrible Natsu looked, he saw how he had noticeably sharper than normal teeth, and he heard how he had struggled to speak that short phrase.

"What the hell happened to you?" No one answered him, surprised he had forgotten. Natsu gave him a knowing look.

A few moments passed, with Gray staring into space. He suddenly recalled everything that had happened not too long ago.

"Oh," he answered himself. Natsu grunted in acknowledgment.

A groan then sounded through the room, and everyone turned to the waking iron dragon slayer. Gray instantly took back what he thought about Natsu. The pink haired idiot looked okay compared to the iron dragon slayer. He looked like he was literally rotting.

"Gajeel!" Levy shouted happily, unconsciously grabbing his hand.

"Yeah, that's my name shorty." He muttered. Levy's eyes softened and were filled with sympathy and sorrow as she had heard pain leak out of his voice, but she felt a small, bitter happiness come to her when he didn't yank his hand away from her grasp.

A cough snapped everyone's attention to the Master.

"Now that all of you are awake, let's get out of this stuffy room. I'd like to explain this to everyone only once." With that, he walked through the infirmary doors. Even inside the locked off room, they heard everyone outside ask Makarov how the three boys were doing and what was happening.

"Explain what?" Gajeel questioned, and like Gray and Natsu, after a few moments, his eyes opened wide with realization, especially after he looked down at his own arm that was wrinkly and greenish.

Lucy turned back to Natsu, who thankfully didn't look to be in as much agony, and held her hand out to him. He took it with a small amount of hesitation. Though the hesitation he showed proved to Lucy that he was somehow affected from physical contact. She hoped she wasn't making things harder for him.

Ignoring that, Lucy pulled him onto his feet with a huff, "Man you're heavy!" She tried to joke, but was answered with silence. Her eyes opened, and she looked at Natsu's face. He was staring at her arm, and he had that look of pain on his face again. But it looked like he was fighting something, and he had an ominous and mysterious look of hunger to them.

"Natsu?"

Her voice snapped him out of his daze. "C'mon," he suddenly said with a smile Lucy knew was forced. He started to pull her towards the doors. "We don't want to keep Gramps waiting."

They were the first ones to leave the infirmary which had been a rather big mistake. They were bombarded with questions and concerns from their the crowd of their fellow guildmates. And she noticed how most of them recoiled in shock at the sight of Natsu.

Normally, she would have told everyone to calm down, and Natsu would have probably done the same and tell them he was okay, but one look at Natsu changed that. She looked over to her left, discomfort covered his face again, and that look he had had earlier came back.

It troubled and frightened her, but she swallowed it down. She knew that this currently unknown problem was something he need help with. It was weird to think that the famous Salamander needed help with something with how strong he was.

"You guys!" She was somewhat surprised that she had yelled at them. Feeling guilty from her outburst at the confused and ashamed looks she was getting from everyone, she put a sad smile on her face. "Thanks for your concern you guys, but…" She looked at Natsu who looked like he was recovering. She fought a blush when Natsu looked back at her with an emotion that could only be awe and appreciation. Now was not the time to get flustered. She continued. "Now is not the time. Master said he would explain, so ask your questions then."

"You heard her," Erza's voice suddenly piped in. "So move!" She commanded, pointing at Makarov. Everyone immediately moved towards Gramps.

Lucy sighed and closed her tired eyes. A chuckle erupted from beside her. A familiar laugh that she had missed.

A smile instantly warmed her face, and her eyes snapped open to look over at a grinning Natsu. It was nice for her to see that this smile wasn't forced like the other one, though it still held some pain.

"Those guys are too much," he said, still grinning, but his voice was still a little breathy. "Good job Luce."

This time, she couldn't stop the blush from adorning her cheeks.

Natsu, before the incident, already had unnaturally long fangs, but now they had lengthened so they were even more noticeable. She tried to ignore just how sharp two his fangs looked; the ones that had almost attacked her earlier. Lucy took an incomplete comfort when she somehow convinced herself it was the teeth that had been about to bite her wrist, not Natsu.

"I agree. That was quite impressive." Erza suddenly said, making the blonde jump, and once again earning a snicker from Natsu. "Calming down a group of that many is quite a feat."

"Man will you guys hurry it up? I had enough time to grow a beard just waiting for you guys to move." Gray's voice sounded behind them.

"What did you say?" Erza said threateningly, glaring over at the ice mage who was standing in the opened doorway. He hid behind Juvia when Erza looked over at him.

"N-Nothing."

Natsu chuckled, "Wimp."

"What did you say flame brain!?" Before the argument could go further, Erza took out her sword. The warning was clear and silenced both of them.

Lucy outright laughed, but it made her realize just how much she wished things were normal.

"It's good to hear you laugh Luce." Lucy looked over at Natsu who was, again, pulling her forward towards the crowd of the other guild members. He looked like he hadn't said anything. Had she imagined it?

And shouldn't she be telling him that, not the other way around?

Telling herself that it was an illusion and ignoring the little voice in her head that told her to tell him it was also good to hear him laugh, the celestial mage looked over her left shoulder to see Erza walking behind them, Gray following with Juvia right on his heels, and Gajeel walking right beside Levy.

She focused on the iron dragon slayer and noticed him... stumbling? It was a little hard to believe that the mighty Gajeel tripped. She just couldn't imagine it.

When he wasn't looking, she further examined him from a distance. Lucy noticed that he was somewhat limping. Weird. She didn't recall him getting an injury on his leg when the woman known as the Plague had attacked, and she knew he didn't have any leg injuries beforehand.

Pushing that aside, she turned her attention back to the crowd in front of her, and she was sure that the three ill boys were ignoring the worried and surprised stares they earned from the everyone else.

Her heart twisted when Natsu again let go of her hand.

"Natsu!" The voice of a certain small cat reached her ears.

The said blue cat slammed into the pyro, effectively knocking him over. "I'm so glad you're okay!" He cried into Natsu's scarf. Lucy noticed the flash of pain cross the salmon haired boy's face, but it wasn't physical pain. It was pain of not being able to tell his little buddy the truth, that he really was okay, for he did not know what was wrong with him. She was sad she was correct when his next statement confirmed it.

"Duh! I ain't going down that easily." Natsu then stood up with an arm around Happy. "Now c'mon! Let's get this over with," he said with a little too much enthusiasm and eagerness.

Happy easily noticed. His ears drooped while his big eyes stared at the white scarf.

"Natsu…" The cat obsessed with fish said in a sorrowful voice. Natsu looked down at him with a sad expression, knowing full too well he had been caught in his act. The feline was about to continue, but the Master's yell shut everyone up as they listened and turned to the old man standing on the bar counter.

"Everyone! I will only explain this once! So spread out so you aren't as crowded so everyone can hear! Natsu, Gray, Gajeel! Come up here and sit down!" He ordered.

Makarov jumped off the counter to land on the wooden floor.

The dragon slayers and ice mage pushed their way through the circle of guild members that was spreading out to not be smushed together, and the three went over to the bar stools and sat down, facing the rest of the crowd and the Master.

Gramps started to slowly pace back and forth, with his eyes looking at the faces of his surrounding children, as he began to talk.

"A little before I was born, the previous generation was attacked with several diseases that gave the disaster the name, 'The Supernatural Outbreak.'"

"What does a history lesson have to do with us?" Gajeel interrupted. Makarov sent him a glare and was satisfied when the dragon slayer shrunk back, and he continued without answering him.

"It was named this because these illnesses weren't actually diseases. They are actually spells created by wizards as a way to torture a rival or enemy."

This earned some disapproving gasps from the members of Fairy Tail as they thought it was disturbing someone would use magic for purposes like that.

"These diseases are a very complex and advanced type of magic. They are first casted by a mage to enter someone. And spells, as you all well know, come at a cost. We must use our magic power in order to cast them. In these spell's cases, our magic power is only used to propel the spell forward and give it enough energy to be able to go inside a body. Once the spell goes inside a person, you can say it, well, becomes it's own mage."

Slightly bewildered expressions filled the faces of everyone, and an utterly confused one from Natsu.

"I don't get it," the pink haired boy said. Makarov sighed and elaborated.

"As I've stated, spells come at a cost." He hummed in thought, stroking his mustache. It was obvious he was figuring out a good way to explain it. "Think of it like this. When we cast our spell, both bad and good things come from it. The bad thing is that it comes at the price of our magic energy, but the good thing is that it benefits us as we wish it too. Now, these spells are just that. Once they enter someone's body they automatically create their another spell that affects the person with both good and bad traits to balance itself out. Just as we need to use the appropriate amount of magic energy that is equal to the strength of the spell we cast."

Wows and gasps echoed throughout the guild circle. Natsu had a blank look on his face and he stared at the newly patched ceiling.

"Do you get it now Natsu?" Makarov said with a slightly irritated sigh. The fire dragon slayer stayed quiet for a few more moments before he suddenly pulled at his hair and squirmed in his seat.

"Why does it have to be so complicated!?"

The Guild Master didn't understand if that was a yes or a no to understanding it, but he continued nonetheless. "Sadly, the spells that were the cause of 'The Supernatural Outbreak' had bads that far outweighed it's goods as they are probably the worst thing a human being has to go through. It was why they were named diseases rather than spells by non-magic folk..."

Gray gulped as he knew where this was going, but he asked anyway. "And you're explaining this why…?"

Makarov gave a sigh filled with sorrow.

"When I was old enough, my mother explained to me what the diseases in the outbreak were. She told me what to look for in case it ever entered the world again to prevent it from spreading like wildfire once more. I believe that you three are infected by some of the spells that she informed me about."

The boys on the stools stiffened. Gramps had just said it was worst thing any human being had to go through after all…

"I'm not absolutely sure, so I'm going to check for the things the diseases do."

He walked over to the left side of the bar first, right up to Gajeel. He looked at how Gajeel's skin was wrinkled like a shriveled orange peel. It was darker, stained with a greyish-green color. He noticed how his hair seemed less feral than the norm. It was just as unkempt and spiky like a pine tree as usual, yet it somehow, plus the fact his skin looked like it was rotting, gave him the appearance of a corpse.

He then told the dragon slayer to open his mouth to which he did albeit with hesitance. Makarov leaned forward to look inside his mouth. Everyone saw that all of his teeth had sharpened considerably.

The master told him he could close his mouth, and he gave Gajeel a few more looks before moving to the right to stand in front of Natsu.

The fire dragon slayer was paler, like he hadn't walked outside in ages. Dark lines were underneath his eyes, making it look like he hadn't had any sleep in quite some time. His hair wasn't as spiky as usual, yet some of it still stood up and shot everywhere like normal. It appeared to have a rough texture: opposite of it's usual softness. It made it look like he was suspended between life and death.

Like Gajeel, he instructed Natsu to open his mouth. Makarov ignored the comment from the iron dragon slayer about him being a dentist.

Gasps vibrated through the crowd. As both Lucy, Gray, and Gramps had noticed earlier, the fangs on the top row of Natsu's teeth had lengthened so they almost reached the middle of his mouth.

Makarov gave another sigh that clearly showed his distress.

Natsu, oblivious to Makarov's anguish, was confused by everyone's obvious astonishment.

"What are you guys all looking at?"

Everyone gave an annoyed sigh. Lucy was the one who spoke.

"Natsu, please don't tell me you just noticed those." She pointed a finger to his mouth.

Still appearing puzzled, Natsu ran his tongue over his teeth. When it touched one of his fangs, his eyes widened and he cringed as if it would get him away from it.

"Wow that's sharp!" He said, understanding everyone's surprise.

"Natsu," the Master said in a grave voice.

All the humor in the situation instantly vanished. The pink haired boy gulped. He hoped Gramps wasn't going to scold him for not taking the situation seriously.

He hadn't been showing it, but this was affecting him more than anyone knew. Ever since he had awoken, he had heard every single heartbeat and breath of those around him, and the sound of their blood flowing through their veins. He was disgusted with himself when something deep inside of him told him to drink their blood. He had been trying to push it to the back of his mind, but to no avail. He had tried so hard, but it always come up to the forefront of his thoughts. It exhausted him to try and keep the need to drink blood hidden away. It had been why he had been breathing so hard earlier.

Talking managed to help him a little bit, and in the short time he had been awake, he had figured out how to hide the breathlessness that came from fighting the urge to attack everyone who was living. He had tried to act like his usual self, and he hoped he hadn't been figured out.

He hid the relief he felt when Gramps didn't say he needed to be serious. He instead told Natsu to follow him to the door.

Natsu lifted an eyebrow at this, but he followed anyway. Everyone's eyes stayed on him and the Master, and they automatically took a couple steps forward.

Makarov told the pyro to stand still a little in front of the doors, and he continued to walk up to the door handle.

The old man bowed his head in sadness before bringing it back up to Natsu.

"I'm going to open this door, and I want you to prepare for anything."

"Uh, sure…"

Then, with hesitation, Makarov opened the doors. The sun was setting, filling the sky with pinks and oranges. The clouds circled the sun, and the birds seemed to be flying straight toward the light in the sky.

Normally Natsu would have been admiring the pretty view, but he didn't want to admire anything at that moment. He wanted everything to end. His body seemed to act on his own, and his brain seemed to stop because of the sensation that crawled over his body.

It was the most uncomfortable thing he had ever felt; it felt like little pinpricks racked every single spot on his body. The light almost burned his eyes.

He had always been the one to burn stuff; he had never been the one burning.

That had only been a couple seconds of pain, and he wouldn't, couldn't, deal with it anymore. He cried out in agony. His arms immediately shielded his eyes, and he took quick steps backward until he was out of the light.

He was breathing heavily; his eyes still covered.

Makarov looked like he was about to break into a million pieces just from sadness alone.

"C'mon my boy," he said once Natsu seemed to recover. At Gramps voice, his eyes filled with pain peeked over his arms. Seeing the Master nod an apology, he rubbed his still burning eyes then slowly moved his arms back down to his sides. He stared at the ground as if it would give him the answers he needed as to why that had happened. His open mouth and wide eyes displayed his confusion, shock, and lingering pain.

Makarov motioned for them to walk back to the horror-stricken crowd. He stiffly walked behind the small man. Natsu clenched and unclenched his fists to get the feeling back into them.

They took their previous positions by the bar, though Natsu clearly wasn't as relaxed as before. When he sat back down on the stool, he turned away from everyone else. His elbows rested on the bar counter, and he leaned his forehead against his hands.

Lucy squeezed her eyes shut, and she closed her fist and mouth. She took her anger out on her hand as she dug her nails into her palm, and she had zipped her mouth close to keep the cries that wanted to break out inside. But her frame trembled with what she couldn't keep contained.

Happy on the other hand let it all out. He stumbled towards the fire dragon slayer which caught the attention of the celestial mage. Lucy grabbed the green sack tied to his neck before he could go any further. The blue cat looked up at her, confused.

She merely bit her lip and shook her head.

He let her pick him up to her chest, and they clutched each other. Tears shook their bodies.

With a heart-broken sigh, Makarov finally moved towards Gray.

He only asked one question, "What is your necklace made out of Gray?"

"Silver," he answered simply, startled by the seemingly random question.

He, with a physique that showed his sadness, moved in front of the three of them, his back turned to the rest of the guild.

"I'm not going to lie to you. It is true that all of you are indeed infected with that spells I had predicted you to have. I'll quickly explain to each of you what it does, and I'm going to stick with my earlier synopsis of the good and bads the spells create."

"Gajeel, you are infected with what people call Zombification, otherwise known as being a zombie. It's… It's a grotesque disease. It is when your skin and some of your muscles rot, and as a result, you want to eat flesh. Your teeth sharpen, and the only goods things of this spell is that you have enhanced stamina and strength. The senses of touch and smell are also enhanced, and your body is more durable."

"Natsu, the spell contaminating you is known as Vampirism, where you become a vampire. The bads things are that you crave blood, and your body is very sensitive to sunlight. You grow long fangs that lets you easily suck the blood out of someone. Your hearing, smell, and eyesight is amplified, along with your speed and strength."

"And Gray… I know you are what is known as a werewolf, also named lycanthropy. It's when your body reacts to the moon, and you…"

He cut off. Everyone looked at him with apprehensiveness.

"...It's when you turn into a wolf. The only sign of it is that your body burns at the touch of silver. All of your senses are enhanced as well as your strength. And any wound not caused by silver heals abnormally fast."

He let a few minutes pass to let everything sink in.

Every guild member felt their hearts split into a million peices, and they felt the pain their friends were going through.

"Your newly enhanced senses are, in the spell's case, considered good things, but in all honesty, it makes things much worse. With Natsu and Gajeel, it will make it that much harder to ignore the craving of flesh and blood. The creators of the spells found a loophole that would be able to balance the spell out while making it that much more tortuous.."

Everyone was wondering why he didn't mention why Gray had enhanced senses.

"And Gray…" It was like he was reading their minds.

"I won't lie to you, and there's no avoiding it. Transforming into a wolf will be the most excruciating pain you have ever felt, and it's not like any transformation magic. You will feel every bone shift and every limb twist. And even if you're inside a building, you will change every night."

He didn't want to scare the boy, but he did want him to be prepared.

Gray was unreadable as he clenched his fist and stared at the ground. His bangs hid any emotion on his face. Juvia's sobbing and Happy's crying were the only noises.

The ice mage's sudden scream silenced everything. They could only watch as he clutched his stomach and fell of the stool. They could only watch as his arms started to twist, and his scream morphed into the howl of a dog.


	3. Animalistic Urge

Juvia felt her heart and body freeze as she watched her beloved's body twist in unimaginable angles, and she covered her ears to no longer his screams that echoed throughout the guild hall.

Black hairs started to cover his body as his legs bent backwards, and his face moved forward to morph into that of a wolf. She didn't even feel joyful that his pants ripped apart.

Juvia, along with all the other members of Fairy Tail, could only watch in horror as Gray Fullbuster changed.

Master Makarov was the only one that was able to gather his senses together to do something.

"Jet!" He screamed as he was trying to yell over the ice mage's screams that were as loud as a hundred voices combined.

The man with a head full of orange hair sped over to Gramps after snapping out of the daze he had been in from seeing Gray transform. He focused solely on the short man to distract him from Gray.

"Head to Porlyusica's as fast as you can! See if she has anything that can help! Hurry!" Jet simply nodded before speeding away through the guild doors.

Makarov mentally scolded himself for not telling Jet to do this sooner because now his children had to go through even more pain than if Jet had gotten something from Porlyusica that would somehow help.

He felt guilty and shameful that he could do so little to help.

A howl sounded, jolting him awake from his thoughts, and he looked over at the source: Gray. He saw that Gray was now a wolf, the only thing missing was a tail that was beginning to sprout. Makarov realized that the only thing he could do would be trap Gray, for if he didn't, he would be out for blood and kill everything close to him.

With that, he yelled for Erza. She went beside him in an instant. Her eyes aimed solely on him, and her body was loose, ready to spring into action at any given moment.

Just as Makarov was about to speak, he heard a low growl. He saw Gray bare his fangs and let out as his eyes scanned everyone around him.

"Gray-sama?"

"Stay away from him!" The guild master screamed at a certain lovestruck water mage. Everyone hesitantly took a step back except Juvia, who instead took a step forward and tentatively raised her hand out to touch Gray's forehead.

The black haired wolf sprung forward; his mouth open to bite the water mage's waist. When his mouth made contact though, it only went through her. He snarled, trying again to bite her, but it only dispersed the water the made up her body.

Juvia's eyes were wide with bewilderment and fright. Gray was trying to kill her.

Relief, however, filled Makarov that his child was not harmed. It was short-lived as Gray, seeing how biting Juvia was fruitless, jumped to attack another person: Levy.

The blue haired girl, seeing the wolf run towards her at full speed, squeezed her eyes shut and quickly covered her face with her arms to prepare for the incoming attack.

Just as he was about to sink his canines into her flesh, a certain iron dragon slayer leapt in front of her.

Not feeling any pain, Levy opened her eyes and stared at Gajeel's back in shock and awe. She slightly peered around him to see his arm held out in front of him. Gray's teeth jabbed into the former Phantom Lord member's limb, and he hung from Gajeel's arm, his hold tight on the appendage to try to rip into the flesh.

Levy couldn't help but remember the time Gajeel shielded her from Laxus's lightning.

She felt happiness fill her at the fact that the ice mage's teeth seemed to be doing no harm to the man as no blood spurted from his arm. It made her wonder why he was not injured, but then she remembered that it was part of the zombification spell: one of the things it did was make you more durable.

Gajeel shook the current wolf off of his arm and then inspected it. There were only small indentations where Gray had bit him. His teeth hadn't even cut through his skin. He smirked.

Gray saw how this person would be hard to eat, so he turned to again attack another person.

Gajeel saw the small movement. He figured that he was the only one strong enough to hold Gray down and also couldn't be harmed by him, so he wrapped his arms around the torso of the wolf to prevent him from hurting anybody else.

He thrashed and growled in the man's arms.

Each movement heavily affected the iron dragon slayer. He became fixated on how Gray's skin felt. How it rubbed against his own skin. Somehow, every time Gray moved, everything around him disappeared from the iron dragon slayer's awareness. When it seemed to be just him and Gray, all he could hear was his own breaths and Gray's.

But the only thing that mattered, was the flesh that coated Gray's bones.

It was like all of his human morals, his sense of self, any and every part of him that was human, vanished and was replaced by one urge.

Something inside of him was telling him to bite into the body he was holding. So he did...

He didn't register the fact that the body in his arms was a comrade.

He didn't hear the yelp of pain that came from Gray.

He didn't hear Levy yell, "Gajeel! Stop! What are you doing?"

He didn't care that he was eating a bunch of hair and that it was making his throat and mouth itch.

And he sure as hell didn't care that he was making a huge mess of dripping blood and ripped flesh as it fell from his mouth.

The only thing that mattered was that he was eating warm meat.

And it was good.

***

Lucy knew that the fresh blood would tempt Natsu. The moment a drop of blood dripped from Gajeel's mouth and splattered onto the floor, Lucy leaped towards Natsu and wrapped her arms around his waist.

He pushed against her grip. She ignored the growls that he emitted and directed at her. She hated that the disease affected him so much and made him act like an animal. But she wouldn't let him be become a beast.

Lucy held back the fire dragon slayer as best as she could. But within moments, she lost the battle.

She fell on her bottom when the pink haired boy shoved her off of him. She was hurt by his actions, but she told herself that this wasn't him. That he was being controlled.

Lucy reached a hand out towards him and began to stumble after him.

The Master, seeing was the pink headed boy was about to do, stretched his arm out to try and grab Natsu as well.

But just as he was about to grasp him, Natsu suddenly appeared next to Gajeel and the unconscious Gray.

Lucy blinked in surprise. How had he moved so quickly? One minute he was in front of her, the next he was so far away.

They could only watch in terror and alarm as Natsu sunk his teeth into Gray's neck.

He gave a very soft moan as he felt hot blood go down his throat.

Everyone visibly shook with wide eyes, but none of them compared to the trembling of Lucy, Juvia, and Levy.

Gajeel, aware of the presence of another, stopped feasting and ferally snarled at the newcomer.

Natsu stopped as well to return the growl. He lifted his head and bared his fangs that dripped with scarlet blood.

Cries broke out from the two book readers as they saw the dragon slayers' eyes. Gajeel's normally black irises were instead a disgusting mixture of black and green— it made Levy think of a deep, never-ending trench that made you want to step away in fear of falling. Replacing Natsu's naturally dark green eyes was a bright, delicious amber that begged for you to come closer to take a better look — a venus fly trap that lured people in before snapping at you.

Makarov pushed his horror and sadness of what had happened to his children aside knowing this was the perfect time to act.

He stretched his arms out once more and grabbed Natsu and Gajeel by their waists.

The iron Dragon slayer dropped Gray from surprise. The now unconscious wolf landed with a dull thud, and his blood began to pool around him.

Gasps filled the building as the guild members watched the large open wound on Gray's back rapidly heal. Not even a minute passed, and the last bit of the ice mage's back healed like he had never been attacked in the first place.

Their attention turned back to the dragon slayers who growled and struggled in the giant's hands in animalistic anger from being taken away from their meal.

The Master turned towards Erza and told her what he had wanted her to do before any of this happened.

"Erza! Put any silver swords you have around Gray, don't leave any openings!"

The red haired woman nodded at the Master before doing what he asked. Many swords appeared around her. They flew forward and then stabbed the ground, forming a tight barrier around Gray.

Gramps turned his attention back to the struggling dragon slayers.

"Freed," he grunted out, trying to keep a tight hold on the two boys without squashing them in his grip. They had been strong before they got infected, but now they had enhanced strength as well.

The green haired man walked over to the Master. "Put runes around Gray that will lock in the scent of blood."

Freed nodded, understanding the Master's request, and walked over to the barrier of swords. He went to work and hurriedly set up the runes. Makarov then asked someone to get the blood off of Natsu and Gajeel.

Before any sort of argument could break out about who would do it, Juvia drenched the dragon slayers in water, succeeding in getting rid of some blood residing on them. She didn't have the patience for any sort of the usual guild fight. Juvia wanted it to stay quiet so she could bear the sadness she felt for Gray's pain and for the fact he had tried to hurt her. She told herself over and over again that it wasn't Gray that had tried to kill her. That it really was the disease.

The fire and iron dragon slayers stopped in their thrashing. After a moment, Gajeel continued to struggle against the giant hand's hold on him while Natsu's eyes started to turn back to their usual color. They changed to their usual color completely when Freed started to walk over and to tell the Master that the runes were complete.

Natsu blinked a couple of times, snapping out of his trance. Then he looked down at the large hand wrapped around him and Gajeel in wonder. Seeing that Natsu was normal, Makarov set them down. His arms returned to their normal length and size.

Once Gajeel was no longer touching Natsu and the Master's hand, his eyes turned back to normal. They both wobbled for a bit as they stood.

Their heads turned around as they looked at their surroundings before looking down at their soaking wet bodies, confusion written on their faces. They didn't even bother to dry off; they didn't care that they were soaking wet, not when their memories were so fuzzy.

Natsu brought his shaky green eyes up to meet everyone else's.

"What…?"

Both of them felt like they had just blacked out. There was a lapse of time that they couldn't recall. One minute they were dealing with Gray, the next they were in Gramps' grasp. It was like they had gotten so drunk they passed out, especially since they had seemingly awoken with what felt like massive hangover.

Everything was a blur for the two. So Natsu and Gajeel scanned the faces of the people scattered around them, just waiting for someone to pop up from the crowd of the surrounding guildmates and explain to them what had happened.

Everyone was either looking at them with their faces filled with bewilderment, sadness, or a mixture of the two. Or they were avoiding the dragon slayer's gazes completely.

This puzzled them further. Why did everyone look so distraught and disturbed?

While their eyes moved across the others, bits and pieces slowly came into their mind to complete the sickening jigsaw puzzle. They shoved themselves into the dragon slayers minds like they were opening a safe with a drill instead of rightfully opening it with the lock's combination. The final recollection needed to complete the puzzle was jammed inside their brains when their gazes landed on the body of a wolf surrounded by swords and blood.

Gajeel quickly averted his gaze, crossed his arms and turned his back to Gray to then scorn at the floor, like Gray being hurt was it's fault.

Natsu, on the other hand, began to shake, with his thoughts blaring betrayal because he had hurt his nakama.

Unknowingly to him, he began to stare at the dried blood sitting around Gray. Slowly, everything grew hazy to him. He couldn't smell the blood, but he could hear the thumping of Gray's heart. And he recalled how good the blood had tasted to him. He accidentally wiped his hand across his shirt.

The place on the piece of cloth that still had blood on it. He unconsciously brought his hand up to his mouth to lick the blood smeared on his fingers and palm. It was mixed with water and, therefore, had a dull taste. But it was still pretty good.

Everything grew a little more fuzzy when he had tasted that blood again. The only thing that wasn't unclear was the blood around Gray.

Suddenly, he felt two pairs of hands on his shoulder pull him away from the blood to face the owner.

Natsu's eyes seemed to snap open like he was slapped in the face, and everything was no longer misty. The pyro stepped away from the person that had halted him since their touch had driven him crazy.

He looked down to find Lucy looking at him with sadness and worry, but he saw fear deep within her eyes that she couldn't hide. It felt like his body was turned inside out knowing that he was the cause of her fright.

When he had stepped out of her reach, her hands had fallen to her side and hurt crossed her face.

He didn't understand why she looked like she had been rejected; he had only stepped away because her touch had made him lose his focus of keeping the craving for blood away.

The salmon haired boy looked at her with a puzzled look, wondering why she had grabbed him so abruptly, like she had been desperate to stop him.

Lucy caught his confused look and opened her mouth to speak. His eyes focused on her trembling lips. Two voices deep within him argued in his head. One told him to lean towards her and capture her lips with his, and the other one said not to do it since his newly lengthened canines could cut her. But both of those voices were drowning beneath one that wondered why he was even thinking to kiss her in the first place.

When no words came out of her mouth, the blonde shut it and instead looked towards her right. He followed her gaze and saw that he was within touching distance of the swords surrounding Gray.

He took two steps backward. His eyes now wide with fear of himself.

Natsu had been walking to Gray.

He had done it without his own knowledge.. And he couldn't do anything about it.

He knew he had walked over to Gray because of the blood. And he didn't even have a chance to argue against the urge.

The fire dragon slayer ignored Lucy's concerned cries and began to walk towards the guild doors. He heard Freed mutter sorry to the Master, and he heard him say that he probably didn't fortify the runes and completely fill in any loopholes that still allowed Natsu to be attracted to the blood. That made Natsu feel much worse.

So they had tried to keep him away from the blood, yet that didn't even work. Was he really that much of a threat to his nakama now? The walk almost turned into a sprint, but two arms swiftly wrapped around his own arm and pulled him back. He almost tipped backwards from the force of the pull.

He recovered his stance, before looking down.

Lucy's arms tightly clutched his own arm, like she was afraid he was about to disappear. Her cheek pressed against his arm, and her eyes were squeezed shut.

Noticing that all was quiet and still, she slowly opened her eyes.

A pair of brown eyes met another set of dark, almost black, green eyes. His intense and thankful stare earned her a light blush on her cheeks, but she didn't falter in her locked gaze with him which equalled his in intensity.

Her eyes no longer held their previous sadness, fear, and worry, they held newfound determination and desperation. She would be here for Natsu and would not let him face this alone.

The fear that had settled inside of him with the new knowledge that he was a danger to his friends was conquered and eradicated with Lucy's new display of emotion.

Natsu was happy and thankful that she had stopped him from running out the guild doors, and his gaze showed his gratitude.

A small voice inside of Natsu told him to leave to protect his friends, that it wasn't too late, but he replaced it with a mental scoff. He had Lucy and his guildmates to help him through it.

Jet chose that moment to burst inside the guild.

The doors loudly hit the walls and would have bounced off of them if Jet didn't have his arms and hands spread outward.

This scared the living hell out of Lucy as she had just been in completely entranced by Natsu's unwavering stare.

Natsu flinched from the sudden loud noise, as he had super enhanced hearing, while Lucy automatically jumped from fright... which only succeeded in making her lose her footing. Lucy tripped over her own feet, and she began to fall down.

With unnatural speed, Natsu caught her by cupping his arm around her waist. He naturally leaned towards her to make sure his grip was secure.

The pyro realized how close he was to Lucy, and began to blush, but he made the mistake of taking a deep breath. Her scent, the usual vanilla, cherry, and lavender, swallowed him whole, body and all. His eyesight began to weaken and grow hazy again, and he barely recognized the fact that he wanted to bite her. He heard the thumping of her heart, and the sound of the blood running through her.

Natsu consciousness seemed to dim. He slowly began to believe that it wasn't Lucy in his arms, but it was instead a container of the blood he wanted.

As this became more and more apparent, he knew that he had to get away from her. And he needed to do it now.

Lucy, on the other hand, madly blushed since Natsu would barely have to move his head forward to give her a kiss. Pushing her own embarrassment aside, Lucy decided that an advantage of Natsu having such pale skin was that she could finally easily tell when he was blushing, like right now. It wasn't a very bright blush, but it was there. She couldn't help but feel that blush had stopped half-way, like it never got to finish itself.

A drop of water fell onto her face from Natsu's hair, making Lucy's gaze move up from his lips and cheeks. But her gaze stopped at his eyes. She saw the same hungry and misty look in his eyes and the reddish glow that was beginning to form inside of them.

Just as she was about to push him away for his and her own good, the look and red in his eyes vanished within the blink of an eye. He pulled her back onto her feet as quickly as he had caught her.

She was frozen and stared at the floor, processing what had happened. Lucy took a deep breath and inspected him. He refused to make eye contact with her, and he was taking deep breaths. Realization struck her.

Would Natsu go through so much pain with just one touch from her?

The thought brought her pain and sadness, for both Natsu and herself.

When she had first met Natsu, he was far too touchy, but she had grown accustomed to it over the time she had known him. She needed the feeling of the contact just as much as he did. But Lucy knew that not touching him was a worthy sacrifice to get rid of Natsu's pain.

She felt tears threaten to brim her eyes again, but she blinked rapidly to force them away.

A few awkward and tense moments passed, as the rest of the guild had saw what had just transpired, though they were unaware of her and Natsu's torment.

Within that time, Makarov had walked up to Jet, who, along with the others, had witnessed the ordeal of Natsu and Lucy with confused wide eyes. Gramps took the duffel bag Jet had been holding out of his hands.

With a slight bow, the Master said, "Thank you for getting this Jet." He walked back over to the bar and sat on the counter with his legs crossed.

Natsu, Lucy, and Jet followed him. Though Natsu walked slower than the other two, and his eyes refused to leave the floor. He was tired of hearing bad news. Natsu always looked at the bright side of even the most negative situation, yet he couldn't even pretend anything was good about the stupid spells infecting them.

And he found that his earlier resolve was dissolving. Yes, his friends were here to help him, but he was, though he would never admit it vocally, scared that he would hurt his comrades.

What if their support in him only got them hurt?

He was fortunate the last couple times he had almost bitten someone, and he and Gajeel were both lucky that Gray now had that ridiculous healing factor… Or then he would've been long dead by now.

He was terrified of himself. He didn't know how to stop himself from biting people.

Natsu, despite his usual curiosity, didn't even bring his eyes from the floor when Gramps zipped the the bag open and searched its contents.

The man first pulled out a small piece of paper. The lights on the ceiling shined through the paper, making the writing on the other side visible.

Makarov read it to himself before moving it out of his line of view, closing his eyes, and breathing a sigh of sadness.

Silence was the only sound as the guild members waited for their Master to elaborate on what the note said.

"Master?" He finally opened his eyes and looked over to the owner of the voice: Titania, who, like everyone else, looked horror-stricken by the previous events, though she hid it well. "I believe we deserve to know what the letter says."

Many hummed in agreement.

Instead of speaking like most would expect, Makarov simply nodded but still said nothing.

He beckoned a despondent Mira, who did not have to walk very far since she had been behind the bar counter like usual, over to him.

She took the paper from his hand and began to read. Her voice clearly reflected how everyone was feeling at the moment.

"I don't understand how you get yourself into all of these problems, you crazy old fool, and this is one I can't really help with. I'm assuming that your so-called children woke up with no memory of the time of infection with what the boy told me, so I'm figuring that they are a third degree. If it was a first degree, I would've been able to get them a cure, but the most I can do with their condition is give them a potion that will weaken the spells. And I also put in some antidotes that will counteract the spells so they won't spread. I hope you know who to give it to, I only have so much. Besides that, there isn't much I can do. I did write some things needed for a third degree cure, but I know it isn't all that is needed. And it will be nearly impossible for you to get the rest of the ingredients for the cure with how forgotten the diseases are."

The moment Mirajane finished reading it, she whipped it down on the counter and slammed her fist into it. Everyone, minus Erza and the Master, jumped from being surprised and scared that the old Mira was showing.

"How dare that old hag end it like that! Bringing our hopes down even further!"

"That's enough Mira," Makarov said, unnaturally quiet.

"But Master she-"

"Did us a huge favor giving us this. We should just be thankful for that." As he spoke, he brought out vials filled with liquid out of the bag and set them on the wood he sat on.

Most of the contained liquid was green while only three of the vials held what looked like glowing water.

As he took out the rest of the vials, Erza, being the only one brave enough to break the silence and ask the questions on everyone's mind, spoke.

"Master, what's a third degree?"

He paused with his right hand in the bag and stared at the counter. It was clear he was debating on whether or not to answer her question. He continued taking the vials out of the bag after a heavy sigh, then he spoke.

"The strength of the caster and how much magic energy is put into casting the spells determines how strong the spell is and how much it affects the person, like how strong their cravings are and how much pain they experience with the negative aspects." He looked at Gray as he said the last part. "That woman, Plague, is a very powerful mage and has an incredible amount of magic energy, so the traits of spells are very strong. A third degree is the strongest the spells can get while a first degree is the weakest. So the cure will have to be just as strong as the third degree spell, and we'll need a lot of ingredients to make the potion."

He let his words sink in. The only sound was the small clanks of the vials.

"How do you know her?" Mira asked this time.

"This was the first time I met her in person. I'm not sure how she knows me. It could be because I'm a guild master or her target for pay. I simply know her because she's the one who started the Supernatural Outbreak. She didn't make any of the diseases though. She simply knows any and almost all diseases that can be casted as a spell and she learns any she doesn't yet know. And people pay her to give those diseases to people for sick revenge."

Makarov growled the last statement out. He had to let go of the vial he had been holding to make sure he didn't break it.

"Like Jose. I heard her say his name. He hired her to attack us, didn't he?" Erza said in a tone that showed her disgust of the man.

"Yes, he did, but I can assure you he won't get away with it."

Gramps exhaled, as if all of his rage would disappear with that one ragged breath, and stood up.

He lifted one of the green vials off of the counter then he reached into the black bag and pulled out a syringe. Makarov filled it with the dark green liquid.

People stared at him with confused eyes, and they cringed when he jabbed the needle into his arm.

He took another syringe out from the bag and filled that one with the blue liquid. They had to stifle their shocked gasps when he stretched the arm that held the filled syringe out towards Gray and injected the blue liquid into the current wolf.

Once the needle left his body, the sleeping Gray somehow seemed more relaxed.

"There," the Master said. "Natsu, Gajeel you're next." The two dragon slayers shared confused gazes before walking over to Gramps.

Makarov did the same to them as he did to Gray and injected the blue liquid into their biceps.

Natsu made a pouty face and rubbed where the needle had been.

But not even a moment later, the tension in Natsu's and Gajeel's shoulders and face vanished.

A smile instantly filled Natsu's face, and it warmed Lucy's previously cold insides.

"Wow! Thanks Gramps!" The pink headed boy said with joy, though it did lack his usual energy.

Everyone's heart beats were much quieter than before. They weren't pressuring Natsu as much, and he didn't have to concentrate as much on keeping the craving away.

His smile spread to the other guild members. Lucy's smile was the brightest though because it was clear Natsu wasn't in as much pain.

And it was nice to see everyone smile, even though their smiles seemed somewhat foreign, like it didn't belong there.

This gave Lucy mixed emotions. It showed just how dire everything was, that it was able to affect the usual cheery and fun-filled Fairy Tail this much in such a short time, yet it showed how much one guild mate's pain gave just as much pain to everyone else, if not more.

"What did that shot do?" Gajeel asked, looking a little more relaxed like Natsu, though not as much.

"It weakens the strength of the spell, but it's only temporary. We'll have to get another dosage next week." Makarov didn't say that they would likely build a tolerance to it. They didn't need to know pointless information that would only bring them down. "Lucy, Levy! You need shots as well!" The blonde's smile vanished, and she looked up at the Master with brown eyes filled with confusion.

"Why do we need a shot?" The blue haired bookworm voiced Lucy's thoughts.

The Master sighed since he didn't want to make his children's grins disappear, but this needed to be said and done.

"The diseases spreads to other through bites, and I think it would be best if you two were one of the first people to get a shot to make sure you get it. We don't have enough for everyone."

"What about Gray-sama? He got bitten," Juvia asked. She didn't look miserable like before. Instead, she looked determined.

"A person can only be infected with one spell. The first spell to enter someone becomes dominant, and it entwines with the person's being, so it gets rid of any other diseases that happen upon them."

"And why us though?" Lucy turned her attention back to them, pointing her thumb at her than at Levy as she spoke her question.

"You two... are around them the most." Makarov said. He felt the two girls gazes peer through him as if they were literally seeing through his lie.

"Well that's sort of true but Happy is the one always around Natsu, not me," Lucy said with her arms crossed.

"Yeah, the same goes for Pantherlily," Levy added on to point out the caught lie even further.

Gramps' face went a little red as every single pair of eyes went to him.

Do I really have to explain this to them? Why can't they figure it out? He thought with embarrassment.

He opened his mouth to explain it to his dense children, but luckily, Mira was the only one who understood and elaborated it for him.

"Oh you guys are ridiculous. It's obvious. He's saying that they love you two so they'll be drawn to you more."

Silence.

Everyone stared at the barmaid with dumbstruck expressions.

"WHAT!?" The dragonslayers and bookworms said at once, though Gajeel's voice rose above the others.

"I don't love him," Lucy fiddled with her thumbs and hoped she didn't get caught her partial confession to liking him. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Natsu duck his head into his scarf so his cheeks weren't visible. Lucy didn't see any bit of red on his face, yet his eyes showed he was in thought.

She looked over to her right to see both Levy and Gajeel blushing. Cute.

Juvia's voice brought her out of her observations.

"What about Juvia and Gray-sama?"

"Gray can't bite you," Mira simply said but a small smile skated over her face.

Juvia instantly deflated and remembered when her beloved tried to bite her. She had just wanted to hear someone say he loved her.

Mira smiled and motioned for Juvia to come towards her; her match-making senses kicking in.

Once the water mage came over, Mirajane leaned over to the blue haired girl's ear and whispered, "Don't worry. If Gray would've been able to bite you, I'm sure Master would've made you get a shot as well."

Hearts immediately filled Juvia's eyes, and she recalled the how Gray had indeed attacked her first, suggesting that he was drawn to her.

Eventually, Lucy, Levy, Happy, Pantherlily, Erza, Lisana, Wendy, Carla, Mira, Elfman, Cana, Laxus, Jet, Droy, Macao, and Wakaba all had the syringe that contained the green liquid that prevented them from being infected injected into them.

While they got their shots, Natsu and Gajeel finally decided to dry off. Natsu set his body on fire, and Gajeel used him as a dryer.

When everything was done, Makarov decided to bring everything to a closing.

"Now you all go home and get some rest. We'll start our search for the cure tomorrow."

A sudden question struck Lucy's mind and she couldn't help but ask. She regretted it once it went out of her mouth though because it was the thing that made the Natsu, Gajeel, and Gray being infected with the diseases so bad, besides the obvious.

"What happens if we can't find the cures?"

Deep sadness and pain filled Makarov's face, and he really didn't know if he should tell them or not. But… they deserved to know. "They'll lose their sense of self. It will be like they only exist to feed and fulfill the spell's wants."

Lucy, Juvia, and Levy's eyes widened. Lucy and Levy couldn't even stand seeing their eyes change and fill with that lust once. They couldn't imagine them constantly being like that, and they couldn't imagine their lives without them.

"What about G-Gray-sama?" Juvia asked timidly, afraid of the answer.

"It'll be like Natsu and Gajeel, and he'll want to kill in the day and night." Makarov didn't let those haunting words settle in the air, so he jumped off of the counter and walked over to the guild doors. He pulled one of the door handles to open the door, signifying for everyone to leave.

"But I will not allow that to happen. Now hurry home and get some sleep."

The guild members left, albeit hesitantly, as if the three infected boys would lose themselves to the diseases the moment they left.

Gajeel stood in the center of the guild, knowing that the Master would likely want him and the flame-brain to stay.

Meanwhile, Natsu, being his usual dense self, took a step towards the door. The Master told him to stop the moment he moved his foot.

Soon, Lucy, Happy, Natsu, Gajeel, Levy, Pantherlily, Juvia, Gray, and the Master were the only ones in the guild hall.

"... So, why did you want us to stay Gramps?" Natsu asked.

"You're going to make them stay at the guild, right?" Levy somewhat answered Natsu with her question directed at the Master. Though, it was more of a statement than a question.

"What, why!?"

The Master ignored Natsu, and instead responded to Levy, knowing that it would answer both of their questions and bring it to their attention. "We can't have them risk biting someone. Not until we are sure that they can control themselves."

"But Gramps, I live outside of town," Natsu insisted, joining back in on the debate.

"Well who's to say you won't bite someone on the way here or there? Your new problem isn't only in the guild."

Natsu instantly deflated and glared at the ground, knowing that the Master was right. Lucy gave a sad glance at Natsu. That realization has to be hard on him.

"Please let me stay! I don't want him to be alone!"

Levy's voice forced Lucy's attention away from Natsu as she gave her blue haired best friend a shocked smile; it was sweet to see her get so defiant when it came to the iron dragon slayer.

"No Levy. That would ruin the purpose of it."

Tears began to well up in the light blue haired girl's eyes.

Gajeel scoffed, though his face betrayed his actions. "Don't go crying over nothing shrimp."

"You aren't nothing!" Levy yelled, stomping her foot on the ground and hiding her face with her hair.

A teardrop splattered on the wooden floor by her feet. A large hand landed her on her head and messed up her hair. She moved her headband back into place, as it had been pushed by his hand, while she looked up at a towering Gajeel.

"Go home Levy, you need the sleep with all the crying you've been doing. " Her eyes widened when he said her name. She whispered something, Lucy didn't know what though, before waving a hand at Pantherlily, which told him to come with her.

They walked out, Levy gave Gajeel one last smile, and Pantherlily a nod before they walked out of the doors.

The cold night air flowed inside they guild. It chilled Lucy, and she tightened her arms around herself.

She jumped when a soft fabric went around her neck, but she a familiar warmth came with it. Her hand went up to it and grasped it; her fingers pinched the material. Lucy looked up to see Natsu grinning down at her, his hands still holding the ends of his precious scarf. Though, his eyes held a sadness that came with registering the fact that he now was a threat to everyone around him.

"Keep it warm for me, will ya?"

"What!? No! You need it more than me!" Lucy argued, not understanding Natsu at all. His scarf was his only reminder of Igneel, yet he was giving his scarf to her. Wouldn't that make him feel even more alone?

"You sure?" Natsu surprised her with this question, and she could only ask him what he was talking about with her eyes. He sighed before giving a soft chuckle, "You make no sense you weirdo."

"How am I the weird one!?"

He laughed.

"Trust me Luce, you're the weird one. Think of that as me laying in bed with you instead of my scarf, and I'll think that too."

Lucy blushed when the bed topic was brought up, and she ignored Gajeel's snort.

But nonetheless, she beamed up at him. Liking his usual Natsu logic that made no sense, yet it somehow did.

"Alright. I will, for you."

Lucy ignored his starstruck expression and, like Levy, motioned for Happy to come with her, knowing that the blue cat would want the comfort. She witnessed Happy giving Natsu a hug, before flying after her. The usual cheery cat looked depressed though. Lucy could understand though, she felt the same, leaving Natsu in the guild didn't feel very good.

The celestial mage patted the cat on the head.

"Don't worry Happy." She pulled a part of the white scarf up to bring it to Happy's attention. "He's with us and we're with him. Remember?" The flying cat's face instantly warmed.

"Aye!"

The guild doors slammed shut behind them.

Natsu breathed a deep sigh, showing his fatigue.

"I didn't know you were that sappy Salamander."

"Like you're one to talk Iron Face."

"...They're something aren't they…?" Natsu looked over at Gajeel in surprise before it dawned on him that really he was talking about Levy.

"Yeah," he somewhat agreed with a smirk.

"Juvia get out of there!"

They looked behind them when they heard Gramps voice and saw Juvia inside the barrier of swords snuggling with the still sleeping Gray.

"Juvia cannot be harmed by Gray-sama. Juvia will comfort him."

Makarov sighed. He didn't want to argue with anyone. He was too tired.

"I'll put my trust in you two. Good night, my children." Then the Master walked up to the second floor and entered his room to sleep, leaving Juvia and the dragon slayers to do the same.

***

The night air nicked at her bare skin. Lucy clutched the scarf around her neck, and the cold seemed to stray away from her.

Exhaustion made her oblivious to everything. And it made time nonexistent as she arrived at her apartment in what seemed like a minute.

One second she was outside the apartment building, the next, she was closing the door that let her inside of her house.

Her back slid against the door, and she sat the floor. The stress from that day made her extremely exhausted. The blonde didn't want to move. Lucy didn't even have the desire take her usual hot bath.

She forced herself to get up and dress into her pajamas though.

Once she was done, she walked towards her bed but saw Happy already curled up on it, sleeping soundly. She smiled at him.

It was weird. She was so unbelievably tired, yet she had no desire to sleep. Lucy needed to get her emotions out. She decided to write a letter to her mom since she had not done so yet.

She plopped down in the chair next to her dusk. Her hand began to move the pen across the page.

Dear Mama,

Honestly, I'm scared. Natsu became a vampire, Gajeel a zombie, and Gray a werewolf. The Master says that if we don't find a cure for them soon, they'll forever lose themselves to the disease. I can't lose him, and I can't stand to see him in pain. I wish it was me that got infected instead of him. What should I do Mama? I don't know how to help him with it, and it's obvious it's really affecting him. It was tough to see him realize he was a threat to everyone. And, well, this is probably just my inner girl talking but I have an idea on how to help him, but I really think that it would only help me, with how dense he his. Right before they got infected, Natsu showed some signs of liking me. I mean, he kissed me, but I think he only did it because Gajeel sort of challenged him to do it when he hugged Levy. I don't know if Natsu only kissed me to prove to Gajeel that he wasn't a wimp though. I'll never understand boys. I told you how precious Natsu's scarf was to him right? Well, he leant it to me for the night. I'm wearing it right now. It's really warm. The Master made him stay at the guild and he'll probably stay there until he can control his urges for blood. He gave it to mean to show that he would be with me and I would be with him. He doesn't make any sense Mama, yet he was the one to call me a weirdo. I already know I like him, yet I can't figure out if he likes me too. He's so confusing! And I'm scared for him. I really wish I had became a vampire instead of him. But I'll support him until the end. I won't let him face this alone. I wish you were here mom. You'd probably be able to read him. Do you think love could help him mama? I just want someone to get rid of his pain, but… I think I'm just trying to find someway to have a reason to try to get him to like me. Well, I need to sleep. Today is really catching up to me.

Love,

Lucy

Lucy crawled into bed and snuggled with Happy. She didn't bother to seal her letter or put her pen away; she would do it tomorrow. Sleep fell upon her the moment she was parallel to her bed. And she felt that Natsu really was with her. She couldn't tell if it was the scarf, or if he had snuck in.

Because she grew unnaturally warmer somewhere in her sleep. She was so warm in fact, she woke up.

The window blinds were fluttering inside of her house, and the window was open.

She couldn't remember if she had closed it or not.


	4. Rather Be Me

The morning rays that flowed through the open window rested on her blonde hair. It soon crawled up onto her cheek. The sun's light did not wake her until she shifted so it laid on her eyes. They groggily opened as a glowing red replaced the blackness beneath her eyelids.

Lucy shielded her eyes as the welcoming of the shining ball of light burned them. She blinked a couple times before she sat up. Lucy stretched one of her arms above her head; the other clutched the white scarf still around her neck.

For a few moments, she was in bliss. Lucy did not have a care in the world… until she turned her head to her left to see the open window. It's blinds fluttered inside with the calm wind.

For some reason, seeing the window open made everything came back to her. The embarrassing fight where Gray and Gajeel had tormented Natsu of whether he knew what romance was, and when the guild had been attacked so Gray, Natsu, and Gajeel had been infected with spells that acted as diseases. And she also remembered how she had found her window unlocked and open in the middle of the night. She recalled all of it at the sight of the window.

She still had not figured out if she had kept the window closed or not before she went to bed since she had no memory of opening it.

Lucy began to wonder as to why looking at an open window had made her remember Natsu, Gajeel, and Gray being infected. Perhaps it was because she could see the outside world?

No, it was as if her mind was trying to tell her something. With a few more minutes of thought, a sudden idea struck her.

Did Natsu sneak into her house?

Lucy unconsciously moved her left hand to her neck. It only contacted smooth skin, no teeth indentations scarred it. She found herself breathing a sigh of relief, glad that no one had harmfully touched her in her sleep.

Lucy actually felt somewhat happy that Natsu had possibly went into her house without her knowledge, for if he did, that would of meant that he would of been able to control his newfound urges. With the happy thought that Natsu was winning the fight for control of himself, she started to get up to take her usual morning bath.

She almost jumped out of her skin when her movement was stopped by something laying on her left leg.

The blonde lifted the bed sheets to look at the cause. A blue fur ball was peacefully sleeping. Half of his body was on the bed while the other half was on her limb. His paw clutched the pajama pants she was wearing like his life depended on it.

Lucy frowned and her eyes softened as she saw tear streaks even through his fur.

She rubbed his head. Happy's grip on her clothing loosened.

"Oh Natsu," her mouth whispered. She stared into space in confusion of what she said. Shouldn't she of said, "Oh Happy?"

The celestial mage shook her head. Happy had been crying because of what happened to Natsu, and she was just as sad about what happened to Natsu, plus Gray and Gajeel, as anyone else was. She had said Natsu's name because he was the one suffering the most. Well, Gajeel and Gray were in just as much agony, probably. She had only said Natsu's name since he was the first one to come to mind for her.

It was then that Happy decided to wake up. The cat's mouth opened into a big yawn. He sat up and rubbed his eyes.

When his big orbs saw Lucy, his brief moment of pleasure immediately vanished like Lucy's had earlier upon the sight of the window.

"I see you've been crying too," he said with a voice laced with sadness.

Lucy stared at him in shock, and her hand moved up to her eye as if to prove him wrong. She almost jumped when she scarcely felt dried tears, and she abruptly realized just how dry her eyes were.

Happy gave a scoff and stood up while shaking his head. He shook his paw as if scolding her.  
"What, did you think I was lying? Silly Lushy."

Instead of giving the usual remark of, "shut up you stupid cat," she asked him if he wanted fish. Happy instantly brightened with a quick, "Well duh!"

He flew into the kitchen. Lucy heard the refrigerator door open, and she heard Happy scarfing and munching down fish which, unfortunately, reminded her of Natsu.

She pushed it away. "I'm going to take a bath Happy! Go ahead and head to the guild whenever you want!"

The cat's response was a muffled okay.

Lucy sighed before heading to the bathroom after gently placing Natsu's scarf onto the bed.

Lucy continued to dry her wet hair with a towel as she walked out of her bathroom.

No sound of fish being gobbled down entered her ears, so she assumed Happy went over to the guild.

If Happy had stayed a little longer, he would of noticed that this time, Lucy obviously took less time to take her bath. In fact, she had only taken a seven minute bath compared to her usual twenty. The celestial mage was just as eager to see Natsu as the blue cat.

She briskly brushed her still wet hair, sloppily put on the first outfit she laid her eyes on, a pink tank top and a blue skirt, grabbed a certain white scarf, and zoomed out of her apartment.

For once, she did not care at all what others thought of her. She wanted to see Natsu immediately to make sure he was okay.

She kept running and running… until she suddenly remembered that she forgot her house and gate keys, and her whip... And she forgot to lock her door.

Lucy groaned and began to trot back to her house. She started to wish that she hadn't run so far so quickly. The blonde was now aware of how much her legs ached from sprinting.

The fact that Natsu had made everything important to her and around her disappear was stubbornly ignored by her, and she focused on getting back to her house.

With the quick inner thought that the sooner she got this done, the faster she could see Natsu, she sped up.

Eventually, she made it back to the building. She entered the apartment and walked up to her door. Her hand reached for the doorknob, and when it made contact, she turned it. The door didn't open.

"C'mon you stupid-" She slammed her shoulder against the door. It didn't budge. She stared at it with a perplexed and angry expression. Was it jammed?

The celestial spirit mage smiled in triumph when she remembered that she did not close the window.

Her feet carried her back outside, and she stood underneath the window. She looked up at it and once again groaned.

How was she supposed to reach that? Had did Natsu even reach that? Lucy answered her own question, because he's Natsu. There was no other explanation.

She took a deep breath and jumped with all her might… to not even be close to the open window.

Lucy tried again and again but to no avail. Each time she leaped, she wasn't near it.

Just as she was about to walk back down to the guild, a familiar muffled chuckle sounded to her left.

Her head whipped to the direction of the warm sound; her blonde hair briefly flew with the action and reflected the rays of the morning sun.

A blush came on her face when her brown eyes saw Natsu doubled over in silent laughter with his hand covering his mouth. Happy floated a little above him doing the same thing.

It seemed like Natsu couldn't hold it in any more as he then clutched his stomach and outright laughed.

The blush deepened to a cherry red, and she scanned the area. No other citizen of Magnolia seemed to be up at the moment since the streets were empty.

Ignoring the pyro and cat's laughter, she smiled and sighed since no one, but Happy and Natsu of course, had seen her attempts at reaching the window. And also because it was nice to see Natsu laugh so hard. Even if it was embarrassing that she was the cause of his chuckles.

The remembrance of Natsu's condition fluttered to her, so she examined the dragon slayer. He was still on the stone street laughing. His eyes were closed, and his mouth was wide open to let out his loud (and cute) laughter.

If she had not known Natsu long, she wouldn't of noticed the smallest bit of pain that lined his face.

"What are you two doing here?" Lucy asked once they quieted down and composed themselves.

Natsu wiped a finger underneath his eye to wipe away a tear that came from laughing too hard. "Happy told me that you locked yourself out of your house."

She stared at the flying cat in question. She thought Happy had left before she had stopped her bath, and she couldn't even recall locking her door. And how would she lock herself out of her house? She would of had to lose her key outside of her apartment after locking it in order to be stuck outside.

The pieces fit together.

"You devious cat!" Lucy yelled and accusingly pointed a finger at him.

Happy merely tried to stop his giggles.

Natsu, confused by Lucy's reaction, looked at Happy. "What did you do Happy?"

The cat managed to speak through his laughter after moving his hand from his mouth. "I locked the door."

"Ha, good one Happy!" Natsu proudly said with a chortle.

"Yeah, very funny. Now I can't get into my house to get my stuff," Lucy crossed her arms and looked up at the window to try to hide the blush still on her face. She cursed to herself and wondered why her face still needed to resemble a tomato.

"Duh, that's what I'm here for." Not even a second passed before Lucy felt strong arms wrap around her waist, and her feet lifted off the ground. Lucy's arms automatically went around Natsu's neck for balance.

She blinked and in the next instant, she saw that they were inside her house. They were in the middle of the main room. Natsu swiftly placed her down on her feet.

Remembering that contact made Natsu struggle with his new condition, Lucy looked back at him to make sure he was okay. His eyes had a glaze that was already vanishing, and his nostrils were flared. Once the haze in his dark greenish black eyes was gone, he took a deep breath. The pyro met her chocolate brown eyes with his own.

He gave her smile that was full of falseness. It was an act though; he had not wanted Lucy to see that. She had seen the apprehensiveness and uneasiness in it. The fake smile was supposed to make Lucy feel okay, but it only made her feel worse.

Natsu walked past her, over to the front door. He reached a hand out to the doorknob.

A small click reached Lucy's ears, signifying that the door was now unlocked.

Natsu sent her a toothy grin, "There we go."

She ignored his newly enlarged canines and smiled back while trying to conceal another blush.

Lucy noted with a bittersweet satisfaction that the agony that had been on Natsu's face earlier was gone, both the pain he had been in when he had been outside in the sun and when she had made skin contact with him.

In such a short amount of time, Natsu had already been through so much pain. That realization compelled Lucy to finally ask a question that changed everything for her.

"Are you okay Natsu?"

Natsu stood up straight and crossed his arms. His eyes moved across the room. Lucy noted that his eyes looked everywhere but at her and, oddly, her desk. The place where she wrote new chapters for her story or letters to her mother.

Natsu was either stalling, or he was, for once, thinking on his answer. Both of which made Lucy scared.

Happy chose that moment to fly in through the window.

"What's taking you guys so long!? It shouldn't take this long to unlock a door."

Natsu chuckled and walked towards the blue cat, "Sorry buddy. Lucy said she had to grab her stuff, remember?"

"That explains everything. Lucy you should go faster you slowpoke. I'm hungry," Happy said in a blaming tone while rubbing his furry belly.

Lucy didn't have the energy to deal with him. "Stupid cat," she muttered under her breath, though she was well aware that the two males around her had heard. "You know you can go and head to the guild right now if you really are that hungry."

Natsu and Lucy noticed the sudden change in the atmosphere around Happy, and they both knew why.

Happy didn't want to leave Natsu alone, not with his new problem.

It was clear that Happy didn't want Natsu to know the reason he had not left on his own as he only looked away.

The cat was startled when a hand landed on his hand.

"If you wanna head to the guild, then go ahead. Nothing's stopping you." Happy opened his mouth to protest, but the fire dragon slayer cut him off. "Nothing is going to happen." It sounded nonchalant, but both Happy and Lucy heard it as a promise filled with determination.

Happy sent him a sad smile and nodded. Natsu's hand went back to its owner's side.

"Alright, but don't take too long." Happy flew out the window.

Two synchronized sighs came out of the mages' mouths.

Lucy realized that Natsu's scarf was still around her neck.

Natsu was staring at the last place he saw Happy. When he saw a white item approaching him out of the corner of his eye, he looked over to see Lucy holding his scarf up to him.

"Here's your scarf back."

She smiled at him; he smiled back.

"Thanks." He put it in its rightful place.

A few awkward moments of silence passed.

Natsu coughed into his hand, not wanting to let Lucy ask that question again.

"Do you wanna get you stuff? Don't want to keep Happy waiting." She nodded.

Lucy turned so her back faced Natsu. Sitting on the edge of the writing desk near the foot of her bed was her whip and gate keys. She walked over to them and picked them up.

The blonde checked to make sure that her house key was with her gate keys since she sometimes forgot to put the house key back in her key holder with the other keys. Lucy nodded with satisfaction as the house key was indeed next to her gate keys. She attached her keys and whip to her skirt.

Lucy was about to turn around to tell Natsu she was ready to go, but she remembered the letter she wrote to her mother yesterday.

Chestnut colored eyes looked at the center of the desk where the letter sat. The blonde picked it up and started to put it away when she recalled how she had woken up during the middle of the night. Her window had been open.

She remembered thinking that Natsu had snuck in, so if he had, that probably meant he had read the letter with how nosy he was. Invading her stuff seemed to always be at the top of his priorities whenever he barged inside her home.

Lucy peered over her shoulder to gaze at Natsu.

His thumbs sat at the top of his pants, barely entering the piece of clothing.

The celestial spirit mage became perplexed and worried at the sight of him staring at the ground. It shocked her how quiet and still he was and how he looked to be in deep thought.

It was so unlike his normal behavior that she couldn't help but wonder as to why he would let one thing change him so drastically. He was Natsu for crying out loud!

Lucy mentally punched herself for even thinking that. Natsu was being strong, just like he always had been. If she had been the one to get infected, she probably would have succumbed to the disease the moment she had awoken.

...Why couldn't it of been her to be infected instead of Natsu? It was her fault after all. If it had been her, Natsu wouldn't have to go through all of this pain…

"Lucy?"

The girl broke out of her thoughts and looked at the pink haired boy who had a face full of concern. Despite the worried look on his face, Lucy couldn't help but feel embarrassed as all of her previous regrets were replaced as the the possibility that Natsu had seen her letter resurfaced.

A cherry red blush covered her face.

"Are you okay?" Lucy's flush diminished slightly as she looked at Natsu.

She huffed. Why should she answer him when he didn't answer her?

With that thought, she bit the inside of her cheek in an attempt to make the flush on her face disappear, and Lucy only continued to ignore him.

Natsu continued to stare at her, waiting for a response, but when her cheek puffed out, his concerned and intense expression was replaced with a confused one.

This succeeded in making Lucy's blush even redder.

Damn it, she thought, make-up will probably help. She ignored the dragon slayer and crossed the room to reach the white table and dresser that was next to the head of the bed that held all of her makeup.

Lucy didn't spare a glance at Natsu since she knew he was the cause of her flush, and she didn't want it to grow. She was also still slightly mad at him for the question.

Natsu blinked in shock at her peculiar behavior. He turned around and saw her dabbing makeup on her cheeks making the red on her cheeks disappear a little.

"You don't need it," he found himself saying.

The blonde looked at him, halting in her actions.

"What?" This was one of those times where she heard him clearly, but she wanted to be sure he said what she thought he said. If he did say what she had heard, she didn't know whether to embarrassed or happy. He either meant it as a compliment that she didn't need make-up because she was pretty, or he meant it as he had already seen her blush so covering it was pointless.

She didn't get an answer.

"Come on, we don't want Happy to wait."

The celestial mage bit her cheek again, but this time it was out of annoyance. Why was he being so secretive and refusing to answer questions?

He then walked out the door.

Now she knew for sure that the disease was affecting him greatly.

Lucy quickly put her make-up away and jogged after him.

The fire dragon slayer waited by the door that led to the streets of Magnolia.

He looked tense. Lucy guessed it was because he knew of the discomfort he would feel when he entered the sun's light.

She was on the final step of the stairs when a voice boomed behind her.

"LUCY!"

Said girl stopped in her tracks, and her hair stood on end.

She slowly turned around to see her creepy landlord standing at the top of the steps… and she was wearing the outfit Lucy always used to wear before the seven year gap.

How Lucy wished she could tell her landlord how blue and white did not look good on her.

"Your rent is due by the end of this week. Remember I expect all 80,000 jewel."

Lucy's heart officially stopped.

Throughout most of the walk to the Fairy Tail guild hall, Lucy had sulked and was slouched over while she muttered curses about her landlord, and she cried about being homeless. Because of this, she had failed to notice how Natsu was deep in thought.

A little before they were halfway to Fairy Tail, Lucy had managed to calm herself through deep breaths. Only when she was somewhat relaxed did she realize how quiet her companion was. She didn't say anything though.

Her brown eyes kept sparing glances at the dragon slayer next to her, who once again had the same lines of pain on his face from earlier when he was last in the sun like he was now.

Lucy needed to distract him from his current pain, but she didn't know how to.

She hated how such an avoidable thing in life would give him so much pain. It was not even noon; the day was barely starting. The time of day was even even further proved with the lack of people outside.

The morning rays were not strong or as warm as the sun would be later in the day. She couldn't even imagine the pain he would feel later in the day.

The celestial mage wanted to start a conversation, but the only thing she could think of was to ask question that the pyro did not answer before.

She took a breath; it was better than nothing.

"You know," she started slowly. "You..um.. never really answered my question from earlier."

"Yeah.." He responded with just as much nervousness as her.

"So… Are you okay?"

Natsu didn't reply vocally. He instead just gave an unsettling shrug of his shoulders.

Lucy sighed with frustration. This was nothing like Natsu.

What was he so afraid of?

The boy next to her has faced so many enemies, and the same went for her, sort of. Why did this one stupid thing have to change so much?

"Okay," she tried again and decided to ask multiple questions. "How do feel right now?"

Natsu didn't look at her. He only turned his face further away from her view.

"I feel like I'm being pinched all over."  
Lucy's eyes softened.

"How did it feel when you… touched me?"

He still didn't look at her. "...I just lost my breath. That's all."

The blonde sighed. Why was Natsu choosing to be so vague in the details of how he was feeling? Didn't she have a right to know? She only wanted to help him after all.

The sound of a door closing grabbed her attention. She looked at the source to see a person walking down the cobbled street.

Lucy suddenly opened up to her surroundings and noticed how many people were walking along the streets now.

The blonde spared another glance at the dragon slayer to see that he looked just as uncomfortable as before.

She had to finish this conversation; she need answers. But she did not want people to overhear. People could not figure out Natsu's condition.

She almost grabbed his hand, but she quickly grabbed his scarf instead to pull him into an alley.

"Lucy?"

Once they were in between the walls of the alleyway, she turned to face him with a certain fierceness in her caramel colored eyes.

"Listen buster!"

Natsu's eyes widened, and he gulped from fear and shock at Lucy's sudden ferocity.

Lucy's just as scary as Erza.

A few moments passed.

He felt his fear diminish instantly when her angry demeanor vanished and was replaced with tears. They welled up in her eyes and immediately poured down her face.

Both of her hands clenched his white scarf, and her head bowed down.

Her blonde hair covered her face. The only indication that she was sad was the tears that splattered on the ground by her shoes.

"W-Why?"

"Why what?" He asked feigning denseness even though he had a feeling that the female mage was crying because of him.

Lucy's head shot up, and her eyes bore into his.

"Why won't you let me help you?!"

Natsu didn't respond; he couldn't. Not when he himself didn't know.

Yes, part of it was because he couldn't tell her that he was scared of himself, and what he might do. And that because he was scared of himself, he didn't want his friends to be involved. Natsu initially had not told Lucy how he was feeling because he had thought it would protect her.

And look at where that brought him. The first time he had thought that it would keep her safe, it had made perfect sense, and he had thought it had been okay with not telling his friends his problems, specifically Lucy, to protect them and because he was scared.

But that were the only things that could make even a little sense. Things just got weird after that. He had found himself thinking that it would have been better for them to say out of his business, and he had started to rapidly think as to why he had ever needed their support.

He didn't understand how he could ever think horrible thoughts. 

That hadn't been him. He normally would have told them right away, or if not, he would have at least not of given them the cold shoulder.

Natsu would not let this change him; he would not let it take him over.

Lucy, meanwhile, had enough waiting.

"Fine," she let go of his scarf and started to walk out of the dark alley.

If he didn't want her help, she would let him handle this on his own, as much as the thought hurt her.

"Lucy!"

A hand grabbed her wrist and twisted her around to face the owner.

She was forced to stare into the charcoal-green eyes that greeted her with a familiar warmth. A warmth that made all tension and anger inside of her dissipate.

Lucy could help but think, Natsu is back.

"Lucy, I-I'm sorry."

The celestial mage blinked. A tear drifted down her cheek from the action.

She didn't notice Natsu was still holding her hand until he let go of it.

Lucy smiled at him when he wasn't breathless or dazed from the contact of skin like usual.

"So you'll open up to me and let me ask questions that you'll answer?"

He nodded and grinned at her. She sauntered up to him.

"No lies?"

"No lies. Ask away."

"Is the potion the master gave you working?"

Natsu looked to the side in thought. He turned back to her and shrugged. "I guess so."

Lucy smiled, happy that she had at least gotten an answer.

She put a finger to her chin and hummed in thought. "Okay how about this, does it hurt as much as it did yesterday when you went into the sun?"

The fire dragon slayer shook his head side to side when he realized that the pain really had lessened greatly. She didn't look satisfied with his answer so he decided to give her a verbal answer as well. "No. Yesterday that pain was much worse."

"And touching?"

She reached her hand out, so it was half-way between her and the pink haired boy. His own hand lifted to close the gap. Lucy was enveloped in a soothing coziness at the touch of his much hotter fingers.

The celestial mage looked up at him, "Are you okay with this?"

He nodded, but since Lucy had known him for so long, plus the tiny fact she really liked him, she knew he was lying. The way his body was stiff, and the way his eyes were somewhat squinted as if he was bracing for impact told her that.

"Remember, you have to be open and honest."

Natsu smiled apologetically at her, realizing that he had already made the mistake of keeping her in the dark.

"Okay, yeah I'm sort of okay with it. I just have to make sure I concentrate on not…"

Lucy nodded; he didn't need to say anymore to let her know what he was speaking of.

Another tear went down her face at the thought of what the horrible spell on Natsu made him want.

Lucy was looking away, so she didn't realize that Natsu had further closed the distance between them.

"You know the same goes for you Luce."

"Huh?"

Natsu chuckled, "You have to be open and honest, and since you asked me a question, it's only fair that I get to ask one too."

Lucy grinned at his childishness, but did not say anything. He continued.

"What's up with all the tears?"

Her heart fluttered and sped up a million times a minute when his free hand wiped the tear off of her cheek.

The blonde was thankful for the small amount of makeup she had managed to put on because of the blush she felt rushing to her face.

Wait, was it just her or was he moving closer to her?

She ignored that possibly false observation and started to talk.

"You're my f-friend Natsu. Of course I would be sad."

"No, it's something else."

Lucy couldn't help but be hurt by his words. Natsu had just confirmed that they were only friends. She didn't have much time to dwell on the saddening thought of forever remaining only friends as he quickly continued.

"Lucy, I don't know what it is, but I just know that there is more to it than that. There's something else bothering you."

Lucy clutched the hand that was still holding hers. You have to be open and honest.

Her eyes met his.

"It's just-"

"Natsu!"

They both jolted at the sound of a certain blue cat's voice. Their hands left each other's touch, and they jumped away from one another.

Lucy felt cold.

"Lushy!"

The cat then appeared at the entrance of the alleyway.

Normally, Happy would of teased since he found only the two of them in a dark place, but because of Natsu's new condition, he couldn't help but feel cautious and a bit scared.

"What're you guys doing?"

"Did you hit your head or something Happy? Isn't it obvious?"

Happy shook his head in response to the dragon slayer. On the outside he looked nonchalant, but on the inside, some fear still remained but he was happy to hear that his buddy sounded okay. As in that he wasn't possessed by the disease infecting him, but he was also slightly anxious of what Natsu would say.

"We're standing in an alley."

Lucy and Happy both facepalmed.

"Well c'mon then and hurry up! Let's go to the guild! I want to see my precious fish, oh and Carla. Onward my loyal companions!"

"Stupid cat."

While they walked towards Fairy Tail, Lucy felt Natsu's eyes burning her back the entire time.

She knew he was probably waiting for her to continue to answer his question.

This was probably how he felt when I was bothering him… Well, that's karma for you.

The blonde didn't understand why he wasn't asking the question again. Did he expect her to continue because it was her turn or something?

Lucy sighed. He could be so childish.

"Hey… uh, Luigi?"

"It's Lucy!" She whirled around to face him.

Natsu laughed. Lucy smiled as she realized that Natsu had purposefully called her that to grab her attention.

"It's good to see those tears are gone Lucy! So… What was the point of those tears?"

She turned around again so her back face him. Happy was still flying ahead.

I guess he got tired of waiting for me to answer the question. If only we had made it to the guild faster, than it wouldn't of had to come to this, she thought agitatedly.

This was it. Natsu would finally see what a selfish person she was.

"Well, I'm obviously sad because you're my f-friend Natsu. But it's also because I feel like… all of this is my fault. If I hadn't of stood there in that spot when we were attacked, then you probably wouldn't of been the one to get the disease. I'm such a horrible person I know, but I can't help but wish it was someone, ANYONE other than you to get the disease. But most of all, I wish it was me who got it instead of you. I wish so much that I had been the one to get infected… then you wouldn't have to go through so much pain."

By the end of her confession, she was bawling into her hands. She didn't care that she was out in the open street that was growing in the number of people.

Hands gently grasped her trembling shoulders. They turned her around to face the owner of them. Her glistening brown eyes peeked over her hands that still hid the rest of her face.

"Lucy. Don't ever call yourself a horrible person." Lucy felt her eyes widen as she was shocked at the anger she had heard in his words and voice. It was a command, not a question, but she nodded nonetheless.

The fire dragon slayer sighed.

"Look Lucy." He removed a hand from her shoulder and pointed it to his grinning mouth. "I'm still smiling. I got you and everyone else at the guild to help me through it. I'm not taking on the pain alone. Everyone is carrying it with me. The tears you shed for me is enough proof of that."

He let that sit in the air for a few seconds before continuing. "And… I'm glad I was one of the people to get attacked. If it had been you or anyone else, I probably would of felt ten times worse than you're feeling right now."

Lucy fully uncovered and face and smiled up at him. Her tears didn't seem as bad anymore, and they were already disappearing. "Are you saying that you care more than me?"

"Yep cause it's the truth."

"Wha-"

"And Lucy, don't beat yourself over a dumb reason like that." The words she had been about to say died in her throat. "Man, and I thought you were the smart one."

"I am!"

"You guys!" They turned around to face a flying Happy. "I had to go back for you slowpokes again! C'mon hurry it up!"

Natsu grabbed her hand, and she met his eyes. Nothing was possessing him. There was absolutely no hesitation or emotion on his face to show that he was fighting the disease that had infiltrated him. "Well, you heard the man-er-cat!"

The pyro pulled the celestial mage forward with him, and they eased into a steady pace after the blue cat.

They were still holding hands, and smiles still covered their faces.

A comfortable silence hovered above them. Lucy had come to peace with her inner turmoils, and Natsu had somewhat gained control over the spell infecting him.

Lucy suddenly remembered her letter, and, feeling confident, she asked about it.

"So Natsu, did you read the letter I wrote to my mom?"

"...No.."

"You have to be open and honest."

"Hey man that's cheating!"

"I'm a girl."

"Urgh! I know that!"

"Answer the question."

"...I did."

"The rule of not lying still applies."

"...What?"

"You're hopeless. That means you have to be truthful with your answer just like any other one."

"...Aw, is the big tough dragon slayer pouting?"

"I AM NOT!"


	5. Lost In A Deep Fog

Childish mutters blended in with the friendly chatter of the streets of Magnolia.

The source of the mumbles was none other than Natsu Dragneel. His slouched posture and crossed arms enhanced his childlike pouts.

Lucy Heartfilia walked beside him and giggled at his behaviour. She appeared carefree and relaxed, but unease filled her gut because of the fact that the man next to her had scarcely dodged her question of whether he had read the letter she wrote to her mother or not.

Natsu had been obvious when he had been trying to avoid answering, and Lucy had played along innocently. She hadn't known what to do then and still didn't know, in fact.

Not even even ten minutes earlier, they had breached a very serious topic of trust and openness.

The event had been filled with tears and palpable tension and unease, and Lucy had hoped that would be the thing to let Natsu push past his new condition to be open with her.

But he was being just as secretive, if not more.

It was so wrong… so not Natsu. It was the only way to describe it.

Before any of this vampirism, as the Master had called it, he would've made some excuse to escape her wrath, like that the letter had been sitting on her desk and had taunted him. He would have said some variation of the truth, but he never would have avoided the question like he did a few minutes before.

The way he had dodged her question…

He had pretended to be cheerful, had pretended to be at ease, and that hadn't been the worst of it.

Natsu had almost seemed like he had wanted to curl in on himself, like he was expecting something horrible to come.

The whole thing shredded her insides; it was so wrong to think the dragon slayer would think and feel like that, especially around her.

Lucy felt so lost, and she could tell how uncomfortable and stiff Natsu was.

So she had chosen to let this one slide and had decided to postpone the question till later... even if everything and all her previous thoughts pointed to the Natsu reading her letter. But then again, she could never bring the question up.

Lucy tried make herself think that the second option was the better choice, but she really wanted to ask the question again. It wasn't really the fact that she needed to confirm that Natsu read her letter; it was that she didn't want Natsu to lie to her.

But she just didn't know how to act around Natsu with his new condition.

It had not even been a full day since the evil sorcerer known as Plague crashed into the guild hall and infected two of Fairy Tail's dragon slayers and their resident ice mage with spells that acted as diseases.

Of course, the whole guild shared the three's pain, but the celestial mage felt absolutely torn apart due to a certain someone's new, but temporary, lifestyle.

Natsu, who was so headstrong, reckless, and optimistic, had drastically changed since he had been infected with the disease known as vampirism. The man that let few things get to him had changed, physically and mentally. He had drawn into himself and was guarded; an aura of self-loathing constantly over him now.

The fire dragon slayer was afraid of himself and what he would do to others, and Lucy knew he had to constantly fight to keep himself together, especially when there was skin contact, since his newly enhanced senses were specially crafted to worsen his desire for blood.

The fact he would always hurt in some degree whenever he stood in the sun was the straw that broke the camel's back.

She knew though that she would have to get used to these changes and help him through this curse.

The blonde suppressed a sigh and looked over at the pink haired boy walking beside her. Lucy's heart clenched as she saw the pain on his face even as he held a hand above his eyebrows to cover his sensitive eyes in shade.

She wanted to reach out and touch him, just to let him know she was there, but she couldn't... unless she wanted to cause him even more pain and make him spiral out of control.

"We're here," Happy's usually cheery but currently depressed voice grabbed her and Natsu's attention.

The dragon slayer, with his hand still raised, peered up at the towering guild hall and managed to smile when his charcoal-green eyes spotted the Fairy Tail flag that was gracefully blowing in the wind, succeeding in hiding the depression inside the guild hall.

Sending one last look at Lucy and Happy, he slammed the guild doors open in an attempt of normalcy.

Instead of being welcomed with the usual destruction caused by a guild fight or by fellow guildmates yelling a greeting up to them, they were met with an unnerving silence. They seemed frozen; few looked up at them upon their entrance. But they only gave a shot nod before their eyes fell.

The unconditional and unsaid Fairy Tail was motto was that they shared each other's pain, and this was found true multiple times, like at this instance.

The sadness of the normally cheery guild hall infected Lucy immediately and got rid of any doubt she had of the motto, if any at all.

Their eyes quickly scanned the guild hall, looking for the master.

But the group of three noticed that the only evidence from yesterday's skirmish was the leftover residue of Gray's dried blood on the wooden floor, and of course, the changes Natsu, Gajeel, and Gray now had.

Few people were talking, but even then, they were only quiet murmurs. The majority of the guild was drinking in silence, including the Master.

He was sitting on the bar counter to the right of them. He held a glass cup in his hands, but he did not drink out of it, and instead chose to solemnly stare at the ground.

Lucy's earlier words, of not letting this change Natsu, ran through the dragon slayer's head.

He wanted to yell at them, to not let this change them so much, but all that came out of his mouth was a voice so calm and quiet, so alien, and so unlike him.

"Gramps."

Even though Natsu's voice had been quiet, if it even had been his own (he didn't think so), Master Makarov automatically looked up, reminiscent of a machine, and like a slap to the face, he was only now aware of their presence. Hearing Natsu seemed to awaken the other guild members as well.

"Ah, I see you have finally arrived." The tiny man stood up on the wooden counter and set his drink down.

Every single pair of eyes turned to him attentively, growing excited that they could finally do something.

"Now that everyone is here, I believe we should have a plan of action. Our first step should be to gather information about a cure."

He paused.

A certain redhead filled the silence with her voice.

"Master?"

"Yes, Erza?"

"I still don't understand how there isn't a known cure. If you're parents had told you about the diseases, wouldn't they of told you about the cures as well?"

Makarov's eyes immediately moved to the ground.

He sighed, conflicting emotions filled him due to Erza noticing his slip-up yesterday. He was proud of how perceptive she had been, he was angry at himself, and a miniscule part of him was mad at her.

But Makarov knew he could really only be mad at himself for the mistake he made.

When he had told them about the Supernatural Outbreak, he said his parents had told him about the symptoms of the diseases to prevent the outbreak from happening again. His only explanation of not knowing what the cure was had been that the Outbreak had happened too long ago, so the records had been lost.

And Erza was right, if his parents had known all the symptoms, they would have most likely of known about a cure as well.

He knew he had been caught in his lie.

"Yes, I admit. I have not been… entirely truthful. You didn't need to be disheartened further, but you do deserve to know."

The Master deeply inhaled and then exhaled, preparing himself. "The Supernatural Outbreak actually occurred not too long after my… son-" he said through gritted teeth; his anger and sadness clear. "-Ivan was born."

He waited until everyone's shocked and bewildered expressions almost faded to continue. His face twisted into a frown.

"The Outbreak had appeared out of nowhere. People had suddenly shown the symptoms of the disease and were rapidly infecting others. When things seemed hopeless..." he said the word with disgust and paused.

Makarov licked his lips and opened and closed his mouth, a contemplative look on his face. He shook his head like he couldn't believe what he was about to say. "It just ended."

The guild members expressed their confusion with murmurs, outcries, gaping mouths, and raised eyebrows.

They quieted when the Master continued. "There was a… bright flash of light and everyone was suddenly cured."

It was deathly quiet this time. No one knew what to say.

Did that mean there wasn't a cure?

Makarov continued, "And few remembered that the outbreak ever happened. From what I gathered, only wizards remember it, and even then, the numbers are thin. I'm one of the few who remember it, and I only know that a few in the Magic Council know of it as well. Other than that, I know of no one else who knows of it."

The guild members digested the information, and an even colder atmosphere settled into the guild as everyone realized that there chances for finding a cure had diminished even more.

Levy broke the uneasy silence when a thought struck her.

"I-I don't get it. Why did you send Jet to Porlyusica to see if she could come up with a cure if there wasn't one?"

She asked mostly out of her natural curiosity, but a small part of her was hoping that the Master was wrong, that there was a chance for there to be a physical and palpable cure. She didn't want to depend on a ridiculous light with that had no known origin.

Levy couldn't put any hope into that.

Please say the Master is lying again.

A force gripped her heart when Makarov talked.

"Some people during the outbreak, as Porlyusica stated in her letter, had only a first-degree and were able to be cured. Everyone else with a second and third-degree infection were cured with the… light. When I had sent Jet, I had been hoping there was a chance that they had a first-degree, but…" That wasn't the case.

Makarov quickly spoke again, hoping his words would give them at least a little hope, or would be something to distract them. "Our first move should be gathering information. Ask wizards you trust about the diseases, but be discreet. We don't want to draw the Magic Council's attention."

His words seemed to have the effect that he wanted them to as the majority of the guild members had eyes filled with, albeit weak, determination. They were already discussing who would go out when to be cautious and who they were going to ask to be safe.

The three infected, three females, and two exceeds were utterly still, sitting at two of the many wooden tables.

Their postures were so deflated. Makarov berated himself for his idiotic slip-up.

He had wanted to keep the real story hidden, thinking that if they could believe there was an obtainable cure, they would be more hopeful than they would've been knowing the truth.

But now his children had to suffer even more because of his mistake.

That wasn't only mistake he was thinking of, he was also mad at the mistake he had made of taking away his children's choice. Leading them on to believe something that hadn't been true had been unbelievably cruel and had definitely been worse than telling them the truth right off the bat.

He hoped they could forgive him.

The short man walked over and stood next to the collective group, hoping he could comfort them with his presence; this was the first time in many years where he did not know what to do.

Lucy sat next to Natsu and tentatively placed a hand on his clothed shoulder; her other hand fiddled with the end of her shirt. Her blonde head was bowed in an attempt to hide her horror-stricken face.

She found herself being slightly mad at the Master. Of course, he had only good intentions by not telling them the truth at the beginning, but to hear now how everyone who had been infected in the outbreak had been cured by a mere, probably coincidental, light really shattered any hope she had of Natsu- and everyone else- being cured.

Lucy looked up slightly, and almost jumped as she saw the Master standing close to them. Natsu, sensing her movement, looked up from the floor as well. A certain look passed through his eyes, and Lucy braced herself for whatever stupid idea he had conjured.

"Gramps?" The Fairy Tail guild master unexpectedly flinched and was filled with more dread at the hesitant and dim voice of Natsu. It was so wrong to hear the dragon slayer talk like that. It took the older man's brain some time to interpret Natsu's next words.

He had said he was going to do a job request. The key word was said, not asked.

Alarm immediately filled his system, and every little thing, every possibility, that could happen if any of the three of them went on a job request zoomed through his head.

"Absolutely not! If word gets around and the Magic Council finds out, you're as good as dead!"

"We can't hide forever Gramps!"

Makarov and Natsu were both surprised when Gray joined in, "Why does it matter anyway? If no one remembers the outbreak even happened, then what's the point of hiding?"

"Who's to say someone won't report you're odd behaviour or new appearance to the council!?"

They weren't as surprised when Gajeel entered the argument.

"If anything, we should be spending what little time left we have of being us! Not uncontrollable freaks!"

Makarov winced at the word freak. His face became shadowed as he bowed his head, all emotion hidden. His body was stiff.

The guild was filled with a shocked silence at what the three, especially Gajeel, had just said.

Everyone but Natsu, Gray, and Gajeel had failed to perceive the Master's movement to his room and jumped when the sound of a door slamming echoed across the hall from the second floor.

However, it was utterly impossible to not notice Natsu suddenly standing and sending a powerful kick to the wooden chair he had just been sitting in. It soared all the way up to the high ceiling of the guild hall. The smithereens of the chair flew everywhere seconds later. People sheltered their heads.

It was quiet before footsteps approached the shuddering, but still standing, figure.

"Master didn't exactly make the best decision, but you should at least respect it." Erza's voice thundered through the silent guild hall.

Natsu remained almost frozen besides his body shaking from restrained anger, but Gajeel turned his glare to the floor, and Gray looked up at her through the fingers placed on his head.  
She continued, unwavering. "We're just as infected by this as the three of you. Don't let this change any of you, but not just for yourselves, but for all of us. You three are stronger than that."

Erza gave one last look at them, which they would have normally cowered under.

With that she spun on her heel and walked away, and there was a harmonious nod of agreement from the other guild members.

The scarlet haired mage quickly spoke with authority, demanding that people shared the names of trustworthy wizards that would probably know of the diseases so they could ask them for information.

Natsu tried, and barely succeeded, in ignoring the blaring voices behind him from his newly hyper-sensitive hearing.

He replayed Erza's words in his head with a blank, thoughtful, expression as he pulled a new chair out and took the same spot next to Lucy.

Gray sat by the next table over with his back to Natsu's. His elbows were placed on the top to support the weight his forehead put on his palms. Juvia sat to his right, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder and nothing more.

At Natsu's table, sat Gajeel, Levy, Panther Lily, Happy, and Lucy. The iron dragon slayer sat to the left of Natsu, and Levy had taken the seat on the other side of Gajeel. Pantherlily stood between the two of them on the table top with his arms crossed and a contemplative look on his face.

Happy was perched besides Natsu and Lucy. A fish was in his paw, but he was not even looking at it. And a certain blonde was tracing her finger across the wood of the table, staring right through her finger and the furniture.

Lucy was trapped in emotions and thoughts that just about mirrored the other table occupants.

She felt she should be angry with the Master for lying to them, but with Erza's reasoning and the fact that she would of done the same if she was in his position, she couldn't be mad.

Like the others, she felt dull and empty since the likelihood to get a cure had practically vanished.

They were all in oblivion, stuck in a depressed train of thought.

They only glanced at one another and drunk from the cups Mirajane had placed in front of them (no one knows when).

They were completely unaware of the concerned and sympathetic glances sent their way. Unaware when someone left through the guild doors to get information on the diseases.

Not knowing that when people stared at them, Erza snapped at them to mind their own business.

They were unaware of the people who had been sent outside long ago, coming back empty-handed and with no new information.

By the time one of them was able to gather themselves together, it was almost mid-afternoon.

Lucy abruptly stood, knocking over her chair in the process. The whole guild became silent as they were startled by the sudden movement that had came from the area that had been still for so long.

"That's it!"

Natsu lazily looked up at her, in a daze. "Lucy…?" He drawled as if he were drunk.

"C'mon. Get up. We're going to the library." She said in a voice that didn't allow argument, lightly tugging on Natsu's scarf.

"The library?" He blinked in confusion; his innocence and confusion made his face appear baby-like, despite his paleness, the dark circles under his eyes, and his sharp fangs.

"Yeah. We need to get you out of here," she sent strong looks at Levy and Juvia which told them to do the same. She glanced at Pantherlily to get him on it too. "And I, for one, am tired of sitting around doing nothing. I want to see if I can find anything on the way the spells work."

Natsu stood; his hands placed on the table to support his weight. The dragon slayer peered up at Lucy, and hopelessness leaked into his eyes, silently and unknowingly asking her why she would bother.

She unintentionally glared at him for the look. He turned his gaze to the table and spoke instead.

"You heard what Gramps said. Hardly anyone remembers-"

Lucy cut him off with a loud breath of frustration. He looked up at her with a raised eyebrow.

"That's true but," she put a large amount of emphasis on the word, "I was thinking we could probably learn more about how the spells work. What was it that the Master said? That they sort of have a mind of their own?"

Natsu thought about it and recalled Makarov saying that the spells acted of their own accord, giving the person they infected both good and bad traits. What Lucy said was basically a simpler version of it, so he nodded at her in confirmation.

"Well, there could be some books in the library that would have information on similar spells, ones that sort of act on their own, so if we were to compare your… diseases with the ones in the book then..." She didn't continue, feeling that her explanation was self-explanatory.

The dragon slayer examined her idea, taking a moment to actually figure out what her plan actually was.

Once he realized what it was, he knew it was a long shot that they would find a way to cure themselves by comparing their spells to another spell like theirs, but Lucy was right. He needed to get out, move, and it was at least better than doing nothing.

And the pink haired male knew better than to get his hopes up, he had a lot of experience.

All the gossip he heard of the years of a dragon sighting floated through his head, and of thinking he was finally going to see Igneel again. For those hopes to be shattered instantly.

Yeah, he had a lot of experience with this sort of thing.

He mentally shook his head. Since when did he think so negatively?

Natsu looked down to his fluffy blue companion and watched as Happy swerved his eyes between him and Lucy. Exhaustion and sadness were the only thing that filled the cat's eyes, not any of his usual cheerfulness was there.

Guilt clenched Natsu's gut; this was too much for the little guy.

He knelt down so he was eye level with the exceed sitting on the table.

A warm (but not as warm as it should've been) and calloused hand was placed on the blue head.

"Why don't you hang out with Carla and Wendy for a bit?"

Happy instantly stiffened. He clearly wasn't happy with the idea. "What about-"

"We're only going to the library." The blue cat opened his mouth to protest, but Natsu cut him off again. "For me."

Happy's big eyes lowered, and he hopped off the table. Without any form of enthusiasm, he walked over to the two girls on the other side of the guild; his tail dragged behind him on the floor.

Natsu swallowed and watched him walk away.

He stood to his full height and gave Lucy a small and forced smile. She tried to smile to, but it turned into a grimace, knowing how hard it had been for Natsu to push Happy away like that, even if it was with good intent.

When she took a step towards the guilds doors, he knew she was talking about the public library, not the one they had in the guild.

"Wait, what about the guild library?"

Lucy gave a practiced sigh, the kind she did when he wasn't catching on to something. "Yes, but I thought that the public library would have more variety, plus we could let Levy look through the guild's library."

He blinked. Lucy stared at him expectantly.

Oh

Natsu grinned at her, now getting what she was doing, and she bit her lip to suppress a giggle.

The mentioned bluenette, who long ago realized what Lucy had done, had jumped at the opportunity the blonde had given her, and smiled at Lucy when the blonde sent her a small wink.

Levy pulled a begrudging Gajeel over to the library; a chuckling Pantherlily followed.

Lucy looked over at Juvia, trusting that the water mage already had something planned.

The fire dragon slayer and celestial spirit mage continued to walk to the guild doors.

The sound of Gajeel's loud and colorful complaints followed them out. They were pushing past the doors when they heard Juvia coaxing Gray out of his seat.

***

The walk to the library was slightly awkward which made Lucy even more uncomfortable because she shouldn't feel that way around Natsu.

He was Natsu for crying out loud!

But after his outburst at the Master, she was afraid she was going to say something wrong.

She didn't know what to do. Which added even more tension to the already horrible atmosphere.

Thankfully, it didn't last too long as they were quickly in front of the library.

Lucy calmly walked in while Natsu all but threw himself into a chair.

Exhaustion filled him from walking in the sun for so long. Knowing that this was just one of the many new problems he had to deal with, he ignored the fatigue and the uncomfortable tingles he felt on his skin in the areas the sun had had contact with.

The fact that the feelings would gradually get worse through the week as the serum in his system that suppressed the spell wore off was pushed into the far recesses of his mind.

The dragon slayer watched Lucy's back as she scoured the rows of books, taking some out and then scanning them, to either put it on one of the tables behind her or put it back on the shelf.

Natsu felt that he should be helping her, but he was useless in a library. He hadn't exactly gotten the best education.

Lucy, however, was the exact opposite. The girl was extremely smart and had immediately known where to go to find the information she wanted.

She was making quick progress.

Once she had about two books picked out, she walked over to another shelf to examine the books over there, leaving Natsu's line of sight.

He sighed, watching his thumbs as they twirled around each other.

He had never felt so… lost and- he cringed as he thought of the word- hopeless.

The only other time he had felt lost was when Igneel had left him. Natsu initially had felt hopeless, but not much later, he had decided that he was going to find Igneel someday.

With this…

Natsu swiped his hand over his face but kept his palm over his nose.

He didn't see any way out of this. There was no goal he could push himself towards. He couldn't build confidence on finding a cure that probably couldn't be found.

Gramps basically said there wasn't a cure; that everyone that had been infected before had been cured by luck and chance. There was practically no way to figure out how it had even happened.

And he was a danger to everybody.

He didn't understand how everyone trusted him so much.

He was a monster… a freak.

He was better off alone.

Natsu completely froze, mind and all, and blinked, staring off into one of the many shelves around him.

Had he seriously just thought that?

...What the hell was happening to him?

Suddenly, Lucy was in his vision again.

Whatever the cause was, either his so far horrible day or his negative emotions, it made him speak words he thought he would never say.

"This is pointless, Lucy," Natsu mumbled, barely audible.

The blonde turned her head just enough to see him with one eye, but she said nothing. He found himself continuing. "You heard Gramps. No one knows how those people in the outbreak were cured, and not many people even know about it…" He didn't have to voice it to get his question across.

Why were they doing this, when all odds seemed against them?

Lucy turned her head a little more, allowing him to see a small amount of her unreadable expression.

She was silent, and Natsu almost thought she wasn't going to answer him.

He jumped when she abruptly spoke with a voice that was loud to his newly sensitive hearing, but was most likely deathly quiet to normal ears.

"Who taught me to never give up?"

He stared at her; his face twisting in confusion. His brain seemed stop, to be lost in a deep fog at those words… To never give up…?

The words were like a noiseless bell. He felt that he should be able to hear them, but the words only silently ricocheted around the inside of his head.

It was there, but it served no purpose.

The pink haired man almost didn't catch her words through his unexpected and perplexing daze.

"You did."

By the time Natsu looked up and was able to form a response, the back of her blonde head was facing him, and she was picking up the books she had selected earlier to check them out.

He solemnly watched her walk away.

Natsu failed to notice how the fuzz in his mind had vanished, and he failed to remember that it had even been there.


	6. Such a Fragile Thing

When the light streamed through her bedroom window, she had wished that she had felt, at least for a second, that morning bliss: when you wake up from a good sleep and everything feels right in the world.

But now, when the sun seeped into her room, she had somehow felt cold. She didn't feel renewed and instead was filled with an odd tiredness that hadn't vanished with her light sleep.

The stress from the guild's situation was slowly piling onto her.

The moment Natsu and her had checked out the books from the Magnolia library, they had gone back the horribly silent Guild Hall.

Lucy wasn't sure why they had. The tension and sadness that lurked in the building constantly now was dreadful. Originally, she knew she had went back to collaborate with Levy to see what information she had gotten from the books in the Guild's library, but as she thought about it more, she knew she had wanted to go back to give a little hope to the guild. That maybe the answer to the whole dilemma was in the books she and Levy had found.

But there had been nothing in them. The books had either given them a better understanding of what they already knew or they had given them cures that they knew wouldn't work since most of Fiore had forgotten about the spells that would make one a vampire, werewolf, or zombie.

Lucy and Levy had chosen not to share anything with the rest of the guild. It was their failure to bear.

Not even an hour after the two had finished looking through the books did the sun start to set. The way Gray tensed — his preparation — was heart wrenching.

The ice mage and Freed had gone to the Guild's waiting room, and screams of pain had come from the room just as Freed left it. The man had looked terribly guilty. Evergreen, Bickslow, and Laxus had tried to comfort him and said that he had to do it. Lucy still remembers his reply, "I shouldn't have to trap him like a monster."

She couldn't help but think to what would happen if they didn't find a cure, and the diseases took control of them like the Master said they would. Would they have to confine Natsu in runes too? And she couldn't help but think further.

Gray changes back to himself at sun rise, what if Natsu were to never be himself again? This was where she wondered if Gray had it worse, or if Gajeel and Natsu did.

She shook her head and stood up. The blonde looked around for a certain blue cat, but her throat grew tight as she noticed his absence.

Just as she remembered Freed's words, she easily recalled the cat's sad voice.

"I just want to go home." Happy hadn't flown, he had instead walked slowly out of the Guild Hall with his long tail dragging along the floor behind him.

Lucy remembered him sending one last look at the resting room: the room Natsu and Gajeel had disappeared into after Gray had walked into a different one with Freed to be imprisoned in runes.

Not matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get rid of the image of utter sadness and hopelessness on Natsu's face as he had all but fled into the resting room to separate him from the others. Lucy winced like she reheard Natsu slam the door shut — hard enough to create a fissure across the wood — all over again. When Gajeel had followed after him, he had been far too somber and had delicately opened the door and closed it without a sound.

It was all so wrong.

Her hands moved to her face; fingers crawled into blonde hair and pulled. She didn't realize she was doing it until her head felt numb. Maybe it was supposed to stop the tears that threatened to flow, or maybe she wanted to reciprocate for Natsu's pain. She didn't know.

For a second she could've sworn she heard a knocking on her window and whirled around, removing her hands from her hair. She fully expected to see a smiling Natsu and Happy, instead, there was nothing.

Her hands clenched into fists. Great, she was imagining things now. She felt so... naive. Childish.

How could she so easily believe that things could go back to normal so quickly, after something like this? Not everything turned out well in the end. Her father flashed through her mind; her fists tightened and her teeth clenched together as she fought against tears. He'd waited and waited… sending present after present. And just a little before she came back…

The first tear slipped down her cheek. Dammit. She thought she'd gotten over this.

Lucy hastily wiped the tear away and covered her eyes. The celestial mage grimaced and gave a short, brief laugh.

Yeah, she definitely knew not everything got a happy ending. Things never go just as you want them to. She knew. Her father had drilled that into her head.

So why?...

Why did she think that having just one little heart to heart, full of crying and anger, would get Natsu to stop doing… whatever he was doing?

She shook her head, no. That wasn't the right question. Why didn't it work? And she absolutely knew that it was the right question.

Lucy laughed bitterly. Here her dad was, even in death, making her doubt her… nakama. She swallowed, painfully. Lucy stood in silence, taking deep calming breaths. She pushed her father out of her thoughts, and focused on Natsu. What would he usually do and what was different?

...Normally, Natsu would hate to see his nakama cry, and would do whatever it took to make sure their pain got revenge, from both his fists and his words. But Natsu has never been the oneto make a friend cry. That was the difference. And it was all because another thing about him had changed with the vampirism: he was keeping secrets.

And the question was why he was doing it. It was so unlike him, and it honestly made Lucy nauseous with worry and — surprisingly — anger. There was something bothering him… or maybe… she shook her head in denial.

Her idea was farfetched. It was so bizarre and unfounded, in fact, that it almost made her laugh aloud at how desperate she was at finding justification for Natsu's behavior. How could she have possibly thought, if even for a second, that something was controlling him?

There was absolutely no way for that to happen. The spell wasn't made to control his mind; it was supposed to make his life difficult and unbearable…

She put her hand to her chin in thought as her mind ran rampant, investigating her idea. Control was too big of an idea; influence was more like it. Influencing Natsu to force him to make decisions he never would've made before. To make him feel even more alien in his own body...

The more she thought about it, the more it seemed a little more plausible.

She shook her head back and forth rapidly. This was just paranoia building up on a random thought she had conjured.

Lucy was going to find what was really making Natsu more aggressive and secretive. She was going to make sure that this ended with a happily ever after, no matter how childish she was to want that.

Lucy took a quick bath and put on makeup — mostly to hide the dark shadows that were starting to appear underneath her eyes. She grabbed her keys, locked her door, and started to walk out of the apartment building. Just as she was in the doorway, she heard foot steps stomp against wood.

"Rent!" She heard her landlord yell to her as she scrambled to get out of the building. She didn't dare confront her landlord when there was no way she would leave for a job request now of all times. The blonde held in a sigh. Lucy hoped the lady wouldn't kick her out.

As she walked, her mind wandered over to the argument from the day before between the master and the three that were infected.

"Absolutely not! If word gets around and the Magic Council finds out, you're as good as dead!"

Lucy held in a wince as she remembered the Master's loud words after Natsu had stated he wanted to accept a job request. She couldn't stop the remembrance of Natsu's and Gajeel's harsh responses.

"We can't hide forever Gramps!"

"If anything, we should be spending what little time left we have of being us! Not uncontrollable freaks!"

Gray had been unexpectedly calm and had even questioned the Master, but Makarov had quickly shot him down.

"Who's to say someone won't report you're odd behaviour or new appearance to the council!?"

Lucy stopped as she mulled over his words. It wasn't exactly false, but his argument was a little weak. Who would report another over their appearance? It didn't make much sense.

The behavior part was a little more understandable, but… Was the Master hiding something, or had he not wanted to just outright say that Natsu and the others might lose control of themselves on a mission?  
The blonde finally let out the building sigh and brought a hand to her face to pinch the bridge of her nose. She took a deep breath.

None of her actions stopped the overwhelming ball of despair she felt growing in her gut.

Images of a smiling Natsu flashed through her mind. She tightened the hold on her nose as if it would lessen the pressure of tears she felt beneath her eyes. Now that she thought about it, she hadn't seen the fire dragon slayer smile in a while...

After a moment passed, the female mage dropped her hand and turned to the water that moved through Magnolia. Sunlight reflected off of it, like a mirror. Lucy briefly wondered what it felt like for Natsu when the blinding light shined into his heightened and newly sensitive eyes. Or what it felt like whenever he stood in the simple sunlight, and it touched his skin, pinching it.

She wondered if he started at his reflection and didn't see himself.

The blonde clenched her fists. There had to be some way to let Natsu know he wasn't going through this alone.

"Look Lucy." Natsu's voice suddenly filtered through her head. She realized this was from before the argument between the three boys and the Master. Natsu had said this just after she confronted him in the alley."I'm still smiling. I got you and everyone else at the guild to help me through it. I'm not taking on the pain alone. Everyone is carrying it with me. The tears you shed for me is enough proof of that."

She smiled despite herself. Natsu had always been a guy whose actions spoke louder than words, but those words had sounded so... wise. Lucy laughed; she never knew she would put Natsu and wise into the same sentence.

Suddenly, her eyes brimmed with tears. She never thought she would ever use wise to describe Natsu or scary or despairing or hopeless or — or — freakish, like Gajeel had said just the other day.

She just wanted to describe Natsu like she always had. Fun, loving, optimistic… And truthful. Lucy didn't want all the lies he was giving her.

The celestial mage brought her hands to her eyes, not caring that she was crying in the middle of a street.

Why was Natsu denying help?

When she had confronted Natsu in the alley, she had thought they would be getting somewhere, but it hadn't changed a thing. Even though Natsu had seemed to of felt the same way she had, of not wanting to keep any secrets and opening up, he was still hiding things.

Natsu wasn't a guy of words (she knew that well enough, but the fact she had tried to get through him with words in the alleyway and failed had proved that even more). He needed action, so what action could Lucy do to give him a sense of normalcy and make him know they could and would work through this? Just like they always had.

A sudden idea struck her.

It seemed a bit premature, given that the Master, Gajeel, Natsu, and Gray had argued about it just the day before, but… the celestial mage forced herself to again remember how Natsu had just seemed so adamant about it, even yelling at Makarov for it.

Maybe this would be just what they needed.

It could make things infinitely better or infinitely worse. Lucy gulped; there was only one way to find out.

She slowly stood and began to walk. Her steps still lacked the enthusiasm from yesterday, but they were full of a small determination underlined with a preparation of upcoming sadness. Lucy didn't want to get her hopes again.

***

When Lucy entered the guild hall, just like the day before, people were crowded around Erza as they tried to work out a schedule in which they could talk to trustworthy friends and family to gain new information about the diseases without being conspicuous and have all the guild members go out at once.

From just a quick glance at some of their faces, she could tell that they were either not getting any helpful information or that they were getting impatient. She smiled, appreciating this as it was such a stark contrast to the depressive mood of the guild just the day before, even if they weren't coming up with anything through their searches.

Seeing them working so hard quickly reminded her that she had work of her own she needed to do. Her brown eyes searched the large open room; she frowned.  
The familiar tuft of identifiable pink hair wasn't anywhere in sight.

Lucy looked over to the resting room and winced at the cracks crawling along it. She immediately looked away as the memories of Gray's preparation of turning into a wolf and Natsu's rage flooded into her mind. The blonde took a deep breath and searched for another person, one that would be able to help her.

Levy was much easier to find as she was sitting with one of the other blue haired girls of the guild, Juvia.

They were sitting at one of the many round tables of the guild. Her best friend has a book laid out on it, but she was staring straight ahead instead of down at her book; her fingers tapped a random and noisy tune. The water mage accompanying her wasn't at all trying to hide her obvious worry about the infected three like Levy and was staring right at the door Gray had entered the previous night to be locked in for a painful transformation.

Her frown deepened, but it leveled out as an idea hit her.

Lucy started towards the two other girls, hoping that they would agree to her crazy plan. When she reached the table, she stood by it and waited for the girls to recognize her presence. Levy stared, unseeing, at the table. She blinked once, then twice, before blinking in quick succession. Only then did she look up.

"Oh, Lu-chan. Hi, how long were you—?" Levy cut herself off and looked at Lucy for a few seconds. She cleared her throat, "Never mind."

Lucy quirked an eyebrow at the odd behavior but sat down to the left of her best friend nonetheless.

She opened her mouth to speak, only to realize she had not the slightest idea of how to voice her idea. Juvia, who sat across from her, finally turned her gaze away from the door on the other side of the room to her. Oddly enough, it made Lucy slightly more confident in what she was about to say.

"So, things are obviously not… looking good right now for all of us, but Natsu, Gajeel, and Gay especially. With the others out looking for information… it's a start but I don't think its enough for them. Do… Do Gray and Gajeel seem to be getting worse to you guys too?"

They both gave a slow nod. "Thought so. So I was thinking, they need something more. Something to show that they shouldn't let this stupid disease change them. Something to show them that things can be and are still normal…"

When Lucy trailed off and didn't continue, Levy leaned forward as a way to gently press her to continue, and Juvia patiently waited with her arms crossed.

The celestial mage shook head in her own disbelief and chuckled under her breath. "You're going to think I'm crazy," she muttered. She took a breath and met their gazes, "I think that we should accept a job request."

***

The relentless footsteps of a certain pink headed imbecile rang through the sensitive ears of Gajeel Redfox.

The iron dragon slayer clenched the fists that laid beneath his head and took deep breaths to calm himself; the repeating sound pulling on his already tight nerves.

He inhaled again, the action successfully making him somewhat relaxed and his thoughts cleared. Although his first thought was to punch the individual square in the jaw, it had lasted for only a brief few moments before the rational part of himself recalled Makarov's words from the day they had first been infected.

The words he remembered made his anger vanish and be replaced with empathy. Gajeel only had his enhanced dragon slayer hearing while Natsu had that along with the sharp hearing vampirism gave him. The sounds of everyone talking outside must be hell for Natsu.

And the fire dragon slayer didn't only get enhanced hearing but smell as well, and since his disease made him to want blood… Gajeel flinched, Natsu was probably constantly tortured with the want to tear into people while he only had to really struggle against himself when there was physical, mostly skin-to-skin contact.

And that was why he had stayed in the same room all morning and was still in it. He knew that if he just made contact with someone, however brief it was, he would lose himself to the need to eat — he shuddered — flesh.

Gajeel looked over at Natsu, who was still pacing but was now bringing his hands up to his head. Natsu was losing it — Gajeel realized with a start.

And he couldn't blame him, he couldn't fight against himself for the two seconds he had made physical contact with another living being, yet here Natsu was, restraining himself for who knows long — every day since they been infected or just this morning he wasn't sure.

He was sure of one thing though, Natsu needed help. Gajeel might of changed the most physically with the zombificatoin spell and was unable to stop himself at all when it came to his disease, and Gray might go through excruciating pain every night and have no recollection of what he had done at the morning, but Natsu was constantly fighting against himself.

For a few seconds, he wondered if the the fire dragon slayer had gotten it the worst out of the three of them. And then he immediately wondered when Fairy Tail had made him such a sympathetic chicken.

He was brought out of his thoughts when he saw the grip Natsu had on his hair tighten so much that he couldn't stop a wince.

"Yo, Salamander," Gajeel found himself speaking, but he did not regret it as the other instantly pulled his hands away from his head and turned to him. Not wanting to damage his pride by showing more concern than necessary, he asked, "What's up with you?"

Natsu raised an eyebrow and swallowed, "You're not feeling that?"

"Did you forget the part where we each got different—" He cut himself off when Natsu seemed... angered or upset by his response and walked over to the window at the far wall of the room. He stared through the slit of glass that wasn't covered by a white cloth for a few seconds before he slowly pulled it away from the window (like he forgot Gajeel was there). When the sunlight hit his skin, he swiftly pulled his hand back to then stare at the sliver of sunlight that managed to sneak into the room.

Gajeel sighed at the scene and sat up on the bed, placing his elbows on his knees. He had no idea of what Natsu had wanted to hear or of what he was doing, but he could do one thing, distract him.

"What's it like for you then?"

Natsu flinched (somewhat proving the he had forgotten that the iron dragon slayer was there) but didn't look back at him. He opened his mouth, and Gajeel saw that hesitance on his face, even from this angle. He didn't have time to think about it though since Natsu answered then, still not looking at him. "My head's killing me."

"Probably from all that walking around you did." He turned around at that and looked at him with what was between a stare and a glare. The black haired man turned his eyes to the bed opposite him. Natsu took the hint and sat down on the object.

The fire dragon slayer spoke as his hand moved up to grip his hair again, "I... I can hear everything." Gajeel frowned at that, with dragon slayer hearing, he heard almost everything too, so what could Natsu be hearing that would drive him to this tipping point? At Gajeel's confused look, he sighed and dropped his hands to his lap, "I can everyone's heartbeat."

Gajeel grimaced, thinking how much it must suck to hear people's heartbeats when you crave blood.

He suddenly recalled the blue liquid Makarov had given them a couple days prior, that would repress their new traits but would fade away as the week passed. Maybe they could get more, but as he voiced it, he had a strong feeling that it would only bring false hope, "Why don't we give you another shot of that blue junk?"

Natsu's eyes lit up — but it only lasted for a moment — before they dulled and were replaced by the thinning of his lips. "Don't you think that if Gramps could be giving us some everyday then we wouldn't be here now?"

Gajeel stared at him as realization dawned on him. His eye ridges drew together in thought, and he brought his hand to his forehead to rub it, as if it would make him think clearer and faster. He never thought there'd be a day where Natsu was smarter than him.

He was really out of it.

He heard a sigh, "Sorry man, you know what's wrong." Gajeel nodded and looked up to a forced smile. "So what's up with you besides the slowness, Grandpa?"

He rolled his eyes, "Well let's just say that getting extra smell doesn't help much when you're in a guild full of sweaty dumbasses."

Natsu's smile wasn't as forced, "Don't let Erza catch you saying that."

He snorted, "She'd kill me in a second."

A few seconds passed before Natsu spoke again, "I hope Lucy and Happy don't fall under the 'dumbass' list."

"Bunny girl? Nah, your pesky cat on the other hand? Definitely on the list."

"Hey!"

He rolled his eyes, "Fine, he's under the 'other' list." After a few moments of deliberation, he spoke the name of the girl who he'd been trying to keep off his mind, "So is Levy..."

Their smiles slowly fell of their lips as they were reminded of their friends just outside the door.

Gajeel sighed, "I've been avoiding her you know?" Natsu looked up at him in surprise; he hadn't expected the conversation to go this way. "It's why I've been staying in this room. Just the other day, I almost…" He shook his head, having no idea as to why he was telling this to Salamander of all people. "I keep drifting off, like I'm falling asleep or blacking out or something. Last time I drifted off… I was in front of Levy, bending towards her. If I hadn't come to myself then… She'd probably be missing a lot of skin now," he finished with a shudder as he recalled the confusion and underlying fear in her eyes… and the other unidentifiable emotion.

He really wished he had some sort of booze right now.

Gajeel looked up at Natsu, "So what's your excuse for staying in this shithole of a room?"

The fire dragon slayer's gaze turned to the floor, and Gajeel knew he probably had about the same reasons as him. "Is it Bunny girl?"

"Yeah…" He waited for the other to continue. He didn't disappoint. "She keeps trying to get me to tell her what's wrong, but I can't. How do you tell someone you care—" He cut himself off and started over. "How do you tell someone that you don't want to disappoint that you can't do what they think you can do?"

Gajeel didn't know how to answer that. He mulled it over. "So the problem is that you're not telling her everything that's going on with you?" Natsu gave a hesitant nod. "So why are you telling me all of this?"

The other shrugged, "Maybe so it will be easier to tell her everything later? You're sort of going through the same thing? I don't know!"

Suddenly, he stiffened. Gajeel was only able to give a simple what before his own ears gave him the answer, someone — two someones in fact — were walking towards the door of the room they were enclosed in. In the next split-second, his nose told him that those people were Lucy and Levy.

He had been stuck in the room for the entire night and morning, and he knew that the scent of two new people in the room would overpower him, so he covered his nose — at the same time Natsu did.  
Only then did Gajeel remember the old man saying that Natsu had gained an extra oomph to the sense of smell too. He brimmed in irrationally angry created from embarrassment.

He had gone out of his way to comfort Natsu by pulling his own pity card, yet he had the same problem as him. Salamander was so going to get it later, all current problems be damned.

Levy and Lucy chose that moment to knock on the cracked but stable door before entering. Their scents filled the room instantly (along with the other smells of guild hall, and Gajeel had not been kidding when he said everyone was stinky), and the two males were glad they had prepared themselves for the overload of smells to flood into the room.

Once they were sure they were in control of themselves and wouldn't tear into a living being (especially since Lucy had just closed the door, so they were able to adjust more quickly to just two new scents), they moved their hands back to their sides. The two girls cocked an eyebrow at the peculiar action but didn't address it.

"Hey," Lucy spoke with a small smile; her eyes finding Natsu's immediately.

"Hey," he responded right back with a smile of his own.

Levy watched the scene with wary eyes as she recalled Lucy's explanation as to why the six of them should go on a job request.

Natsu had changed, and Lucy had said that he needed something normal to prove that things don't have to be different, and with how Gajeel had been avoiding her because of his new zombification, she had heartedly agreed. Juvia hadn't been far behind.

The room was filled with silence, and she knew that this had to change too. She pointed a glare at the iron dragon slayer who was staring at the wooden floor.

Levy took a breath and opened her mouth to say something, and she had no idea of what that something was.

She turned to Lucy and tilted her head forward. Lucy gave the tiniest of nods; she got the message.

The blonde cleared her throat. Gajeel's gaze lifted from the floor but turned to Lucy instead; Levy suppressed a groan of frustration. She gladly distracted herself with her best friend's next words.

"So, how do you guys feel about accepting a job request?" That successfully took her mind off of things. She couldn't believe how Lucy could be so blunt.

She was glad that she wasn't the only one gaping, although Natsu and Gajeel probably had different reasons for it.

"Lucy, are you crazy!?" The blonde didn't flinch at Natsu's outburst, but her eyes saddened.

"No, but you two will be if you stay in this room any longer."

"No, Salamander's right, it's too risky. We stayed in this room for a reason. We. Can't. Handle. It." They all whirled around to face Gajeel, even Natsu. They were shocked by his cold and seemingly random burst of words. Levy felt her eyes widen most of all, and she felt tears threatening to surface. They only didn't come out because of her bewilderment.

Gajeel seemed just as surprised as the rest of them. And he looked ashamed. Two emotions that Levy never associated with the iron dragon slayer.

That was all Levy needed to remove any remaining uncertainty she had about them needing to go on a mission.

Lucy was right — these disease were changing them. When the celestial mage had first proposed the idea of all six of them accepting a job request, between her and Juvia, she had been the first to agree with it, but she hadn't fully agreed. There was such a large risk for it to make the situation worse. But now she understood Lucy's train of thought.

The risk was well worth the consequences.

"Don't you trust us?" Levy found herself speaking. Red eyes found hers, and she knew what she needed to say. At Gajeel's small nod, she continued, never breaking eye contact with him. "If you trust us, then why won't you let us trust you?"

Gajeel felt his throat close up at her words. He couldn't respond, and even if he could, he wouldn't know what to say.

The blue-haired girl took his silence in stride and took a couple steps towards him. Levy was satisfied to see he didn't step back.

"Trust us to help you. To look after you, and we'll trust you to try your hardest and to not give up like that."

Levy didn't stop walking forward until she was almost touching him — only a sliver of a gap separated them. Though he was so much taller than her, she wasn't intimidated.

She spoke barely above a whisper, "Don't do that, Gajeel. Never again… Promise me?" He could only nod. He knew he never wanted to say those words again, but they had come of their own accord. Gajeel could only hope they wouldn't come past his lips again.

As the two talked, Natsu had only been able to stare numbly at the floor. He wished he fix things with Lucy like that, make things right. But he had somehow managed to screw things up by saying things he never could of imagined himself speaking.

And worst of all, he had made Lucy cry for a decision he had unconsciously made. Natsu didn't know if he could ever forgive himself for that.

The fire dragon slayer looked up at the blonde and felt a small smile work itself onto his face at the grin she sported as she watched the fairly intimate moment between the other two.

He realized that he wanted to be the one to cause that smile, like he used to be able to on a daily basis.

But this particular smile was created by her and Levy suggesting that they go on a job request... And maybe that was Lucy's way of making things right and normal and good again.

And the least he could do was follow her plan, so he cleared his throat. Gajeel hesitantly turned to face hims, and a large blush came to Levy's face.

"We'll go. You choose the job, and we'll talk to Gramps." They all blinked in confusion, wondering what had made him change his mind. He could tell when they pushed it aside and adjusted to the change of topic (Oddly, Natsu had no reaction to the fact he had been able to identify all of that — mostly through smell). They thought about his words, and then their skepticism became clear — they were all thinking about the argument the three had with the Master.

"Actually, I thought that I should—"

"Trust us, Lucy. We need to be the ones to talk to him."

Her eyes widened at that. He was being so brave, considering all that had happened.

She didn't get a chance to respond as Natsu's attention seemed to of been diverted.

He cocked his head to the side and shared a look with Gajeel; they had heard a door open, specifically the one that belonged to the room Gray was staying in.

At the sudden reminder of the ice mage, they wondered how they would convince him to come along. Gajeel voiced the question, "What about Gray?"

The two girls shared a sly grin as the blonde said, "Juvia's handling it."

When a smile was starting to form on Natsu's face, it was quickly replaced with a frown. "Someone's still in his room, and there's only one pair of footsteps coming towards us, not two."

Before anyone could say anything or ask how he knew, the door opened to reveal Juvia. She looked sad. "Gray wants to see you two."

They were shocked at the lack of formality towards Gray, but Gajeel's surprise was conquered by a small anger.

"So what, you're acting as his messenger girl now?"

She glared, "He's thinking about coming with us at the moment. I've done all that I could."

"Did you tell him about the herb?" The iron and fire dragon slayer looked at Lucy in confusion.

"Yes, and then he said he would think about the job request and that he wanted to talk to Natsu and Gajeel-san."

"Wait, what herb!?"

Natsu looked at Levy as she answered him, "The Master sent Jet up to Porlyusica a couple more times, and one of the things she gave us is a herb that will make Gray sleep through the night."

Lucy talked before anyone could make a reply, "Look, for whatever reason he wants to talk to you two, you need to convince him to come."

Natsu sent her a puzzled look. Her request brought him right back to wondering why she was doing this. His earlier idea that she was doing this to make things right between the two of them seemed a little less plausible or then it would've been just him and her.

He felt his spirits sink. Shit, he was jealous wasn't he? Natsu could definitely identify that emotion, but there was something else...

He didn't have anymore time to examine it as Lucy's voice drew him to the present, "Natsu?"

"Uh, yeah, sure. We'll do… that."

Everyone looked perplexed at his bizarre behavior or in Lucy's case — worried.

She slowly nodded and whispered a quiet but still grateful thank you.

They made eye contact, but before Lucy could distinguish the emotions hidden behind his dark green eyes, he blinked and looked to the floor.

"Yeah, sure," was the only response to Lucy's thanks. Without another word, he headed towards the door. Gajeel hesitantly followed, turning to their immediate left as they left the door frame.

Like Natsu, he kept his shoulder hunched, for both the same and for different reasons.

They were walking past the request board and the entrance of the guild hall; giving everyone a good view of them as they walked past. He knew both he and Natsu were trying to avoid the penetrating gazes sent their way, but that wasn't Natsu's only reason for his current posture. Judging from the bundled cloth from his hands clenching in his pocket and from examining the last conversation, Gajeel knew he was jealous. He had enough sense to know not to say anything, but he didn't have enough preservation to contain his smirk.

Even if he had wanted to say something, he wouldn't of had enough time as they reached the door to Gray's temporary room then, the waiting room for people visiting the guild.

He grimaced as he felt a wash of sympathy for whoever had to deflect visitors; they had been getting a lot ever since the Grand Magic Games.

The creak of the wooden door brought him from his thoughts, and he walked into the room.

***

Lucy, Levy, and Juvia waited a couple seconds before following the other two out the door. When they walked, Gajeel and Natsu were already on the other side of the huge building, walking past the library in the far left corner of the guild, and then into the waiting room.

Despite how taut Lucy was with her constant tension and confusion, she couldn't hold in a very unladylike snort (her father would have disapproved) at how Natsu hadn't even knocked and barged right on in, as per-usual.

Levy and Juvia gave her an odd look, only now able to see Gajeel enter the other room and the door close. Lucy sent only a smile and turned left to the request board. The blue haired girls followed.

"Okay," the blonde hummed, mostly to herself, as they reached the request boards. "So we'll need one that isn't far away and pays well. But we also need to make sure that the boys'll like it." She openly scowled at a job that asked for women of their guild to 'pose'. She knew of the job's client; he had quite a gross reputation. She felt sorry for any girl who would choose this request, accidentally or not.

At that thought, and in a burst of immaturity, she removed the pin holding the request to the board, folded the smooth paper in half so only the blank side was showing, and pushed the pin through the two layers, and ultimately, the request board.

Before they could say anything, Lucy's movement caught their attention again. She reached forwards and plucked a paper from the board; it had been hiding underneath the job request that was currently uplifted.

At Lucy's gasp, Juvia asked, "What is it?"

Instead of answering, she simply turned around and showed them. The paper, like all requests, gave a description and a picture, with the title of the job along with the reward at the top. The description it gave was short, and its picture depicted a presumably small, black sphere that had white runes — they were like Freed's yet they were entirely different — carved all around it. Their eyes moved to the top of the paper only to bulge at the reward labeled across its top: two million jewel.

Levy gently took the job request from Lucy, like it would disappear otherwise. "Thats...thats just too much for only collecting an… orb?"

Levy handed it to Juvia, and the water mage hummed as she read the job's description. "... Only guarded by a large group of bandits," she added on. "It certainly seems to be a bit much."

As the two spoke, Lucy had rotated to face the board and skimmed over the location all the other jobs gave. None of them were within the city or on its outskirts, oddly enough.

She spun back to the others; they were still examining the request like it would explode.

If none of the other requests took place in Magnolia, than the last one to check would be that one.

"Is that one in Magnolia? Or at least somewhere close by?'

Levy blinked, a small frown on her face. "Yeah, it is."

The celestial mage wasn't quite sure how to feel about that… something was off. She sighed, "None of these— " she threw a hand up in the direction of the board, " — are close enough. That's the only one that's in town."

They both grimaced at that; Lucy was glad she wasn't the only one that had an odd feeling about that request.

"None of them?" She shook her head at the water mage.

They shared uneasy glances.

The money it offered was far too much for just fighting bandits to reclaim an item. There was something else.

"Does it say anything about the orb?" Lucy directed the question to Juvia, who still held the paper. She looked down at it; eyes moving back and forth as she scanned it for any information.

"It only says that it is of high value and that it must not be damaged."

Lucy couldn't contain a snort, "Good luck with that." It was in a house of bandits, how would it not be damaged?

She then briefly wonder why bandits would take something valuable to only not sell it.

The blonde looked at Levy when she spoke, "We should ask Mirajane who put the request in. I don't recognize the client's name."

"What is it?"

"Lintia Trusoff." Lucy didn't recognize the name, and according to Juvia's face, she didn't either.

Before they could even move to find the bartender, who was not in her usual spot by the bar, the guild's front doors opened, and a man stepped in.

He sported fair yet pale skin and smooth sandy blonde hair. Judging from the green tunic, accompanied with a leather belt around his waist, and dark pants — both having not a single blemish or rip — he was of the upper class. She noticed as he turned towards the threesome that his eyes were an extremely light brown, and even at this distance, she could see that they held an underlying amber.

Lucy would be crazy to deny that he was attractive.

The man started to walk towards them. To some, it would look confident and perhaps graceful, but to Lucy, it looked like he was stalking, getting ready to pounce.

"Hello ladies," he said in a voice that was smooth like silk, yet it grated Lucy's nerves. She had been looking straight into his eyes as he approached, but when he had spoken, her eyes had immediately flown to his teeth: they were sharp.

He lifted a hand and the blonde realized he was holding an object — a job request. "I was wondering if you could direct me to the lovely Mirajane? I believe she handles your job requests."

Lucy struggled to keep her surprise off of her face.

When people wanted to give any request to a guild, they usually came themselves or had someone come for them, or — in the richs' case — use a lacrima to setup the request from large distance communication. In the case that a person came to the guild, they were directed to the waiting room from the information desk until Mirajane — the appointed job keeper — could come to them to complete the request by either making one from scratch or adding on to one already made.

It was clear that this was his first time organizing a request or he would've gone to the information desk to the immediate left of the doorway instead of going towards a guild member, yet he knew that Mirajane was the job keeper — something only previous or current clients knew about — and he already had a request ready, another thing new clients rarely did, although he could just be delivering it. The truly odd thing though was that if he really were rich, he would've used a lacrima. If he weren't actually wealthy, then it was a wonder as to how he got the nice clothing…

Lucy suddenly perceived that neither she or the others had answered him. She opened her mouth to speak and then snapped it shut.

Natsu, Gajeel, and Gray were in the waiting room. She couldn't tell him to go there. And, after a quick search, she saw Mirajane was nowhere in sight.

She wasn't quite sure about what to do. The two blue haired girls obviously didn't know either.

"Uh... do you think you could come back later? We—I'm—she— uh," she winced at that and forced herself to take a small breath (what was wrong with her?!). "Mirajane is a bit… busy."

Her face was a hot red and her smile was only of embarrassment, and it intensified as the man raised a brow.

"Are you sure? It won't take too long. I just wish to update one of the requests."

Lucy forced some confidence into her smile and looked straight into his eyes, even if it made her uncomfortable because of his penetrating stare.

"I guess I can show it to her later. Which one is it?"

His eyes looked over the board — and oddly enough, he didn't say anything about the folded request — until they landed on the paper Juvia was holding. She had let her arms go lax, so its front was clear to the man as it hung from her limp hands.

"That one, actually."

The three had a hard time repressing their surprise. "Oh." Lucy swallowed, "That one's yours?"

The man smiled, almost shyly, but it was ruined by his teeth. "It's actually my grandmother's. She put up the request three days ago when she found the location of that—" he pointed at the picture of the sphere " — and no one has accepted the job yet. She's getting very desperate and told me to come update the reward." None of them asked why he was tasked with this when he (and no one else for that matter) has come before for this particular request. "Are you three going to take the job?"

"We're still looking," Juvia answered that time.

"But there's a high chance we will do it," Lucy quickly added on. The other two females gave her a questioning look. "So… Can I see the updated version, or did you only change the price? My friends and I were confused on what the item actually is."

She held out a hand, and he, ever so slowly, placed it in her palm — without touching her skin.

Lucy unfolded it and gasped at the price again. His desperate grandmother had added five hundred thousand jewel. She couldn't help but mutter, "Wow, that's a lot of money," for such a small little orb. But she guessed everyone had something special to them. Her shoulders slumped as there wasn't any new information about the sphere... except for an ominous: don't let the sick touch it.

She raised her head and made sure to examine the man's pursed lips and slightly raised eyebrow before they were to disappear with her question, "What do you know about the item?"

She was surprisingly right; his expression immediately vanished, shoulders moving in a shrug, "Nothing much, really. I only know she lost it a long, long time ago, and she only recently found out where it is. She's willing to do anything to get it back."

The purpose of his last sentence was to invoke sympathy, but it only sent a shiver down their spines.

Lucy carefully kept her face blank and forced a friendly smile onto it. "Oh, well do you know what your grandmother means by this?" She leaned over (just as far as was necessary) to point out the strange sentence of the sick to him.

And she was shocked to see utter and honest confusion leak into his voice and onto his face. "I… I don't know."

The abrupt noise of footsteps approaching them caught their attention, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw figures approaching. She pulled away from the man, who looked oddly disappointed — she from then on classified him as a pervert, though that strangely felt off — and moved to stand next to Levy and Juvia.

Lucy found herself breathing a sigh of relief at the sight of Natsu and the two other boys.

She was about to open her mouth to say something when she realized that Natsu was still walking towards her and didn't look to be stopping… not until he was directly in front of her, where he took the request from her while purposely touching her hand. "What— " are you doing you idiot!? She only finished her venomous statement inside of her head because of the complete concentration he had on his face.

When he finally opened his eyes a second or a minute later (she wasn't sure), he looked at Gray, who gave the slightest of nods.

Wait, was Natsu proving himself to Gray?

A sudden cough sounded, and she remembered with a start that the mysterious guy was still here… and he probably just witnessed the entire thing.

The fire dragon slayer only turned around, blinked, and asked, "Who are you?"

The man looked incredibly insulted; Lucy could barely keep the relief off of her face. He didn't show any signs of having seen anything — she hoped he wasn't a gifted actor.

"My name is Shale."

"Shale? Like the rock?" The question surprisingly came from Natsu.

The blonde looked back towards the man — Shale — and actually flinched in shock from the bittersweet happiness that seeped from his entire being. No actor, no matter how good, could fake that.

"Yes, my mother was obsessed with the things. It was quite the wonder as to why she would love shale. It's such a fragile thing." He shook his head, as if to get himself back on track. "So when she had her only son, she of course had to name him after them and spread her love for them. She wasn't only into rocks though, she loved the unknown. Things that had yet to be discovered or deciphered by man." His eyes briefly flicked to the picture of the sphere on his grandmother's request — Lucy noticed — before he darkly chuckled, "She wouldn't hurt a fly."

Most of the others blinked in confusion, but Lucy's eyes softened and her mouth parted.

In the softest of voices, she said, "She was murdered."

Shale's eyes snapped up from the floor to meet hers; the amber in them intensified as they hardened in anger and another unidentifiable emotion.

"Yes. She was." The amber in his stayed the same, even as they flicked between person to person and, ultimately, the job request. "I do hope you take the job, Ms. Heartfilia," her eyes widened, but she didn't look away. "My mother deserves her peace."

He left without another word, and the door closed behind him, locking the sunlight out.


End file.
